Really nicece looking KK42! Just curious why you left the Furuno LC90 Loran in place? Had 2 of those for 20 years on my charter boats, so it immediately caught my eye. After they turned Loran off 6 years ago, there wasn't any reason to keep them on board anymore.
Ted
Good eye Ted!
The smart-alec response even a couple of years ago would have been that there wasn't room for it on the bow rollers as a backup anchor.
While it is true to say that I spent an embarrassing amount of time laying out each of the instrument panels in a way that was pleasing to both eye and function, that the LC-90 looks just fine there, still work in some parts of the world, and until and unless there was an alternate piece of gear that I wanted in that spot more than the LC-90 it would stay, even if just as a silent protest to the US turning off the Loran stations in our part of the globe, for reasons perhaps more political than practical.
I already have triple-redundant GPS receivers aboard, so it's not my receivers that I'm concerned about; rather it's the inherent vulnerability of a satellite-based system. So the only piece of gear I personally want in that spot is a low-frequency high-power terrestrial radio navigation backup to my primary backup (which consists of paper charts, a great chart table, plotting aids, a chronometer and a sextant).
But the real truth has been that I've never succumbed to the idea that Loran was gone for good. Call me crazy...then.
Even as GPS was in the beginning stages of implementation, Loran-C was viewed as an essential and far less vulnerable backup to GPS. See:
The Case for Loran - G. Linn Roth ;
I believe that was true then, and that it is more true in todays world.
The funny part is, it looks like I wasn't crazy, and that old LC-90 might indeed prove to be just the thing, even if it can't make use of the added accuracy-enhancement signal of eLoran. Which is on the air and testing in the US and Europe right now.
Check this out:
GPS.gov: LORAN-C Infrastructure & E-LORAN
eLoran Progresses Toward GPS Back-Up Role in U.S., Europe : GPS World
So Ted, thanks for bringing up the Loran-C thing, as I hadn't checked in on it for quite some time, and you prompted me to do so.
And apologies for the too-long reply.