While much larger initiatives are needed to make shipping more environmentally sound, the little things add up. Don’t believe me? Ask any Engineer who has played the efficiency contest, a game where each on duty engineer goes around the ship turning off lights to increase the vessel’s fuel efficiency during his watch. The object of the game is to obtain better efficiency figures than the last watchstander.
Or was the game just intended to confuse the Deckies? (We really need an Engineer blogger here at gCaptain… any takers?).
Panbo brings us a small improvement in energy conservation that, if deployed on ships worldwide, may have a lasting improvement. They write:
Last winter, thanks to Lee Guite of East Boothbay, I tried some LED bulbs Lee used to replace the incandescent ones in the Aqua Signal nav lights aboard his Dulcinea. Lee got pretty carried away researching available replacement bulbs and the ones he finally chose were “flux” models from the LED Shop in Australia. In the photo above I was trying to get a camera comparison of his steaming light versus an OGM combo LED running light. They both seemed fairly effective, but now the LED Shop has more powerful SMT bulbs, and Orca Green Marine has dropped the multi-LED models altogether in favor of single LED lights. I don’t know much about LEDs, but they do seem to be in a state of rapid technological change, which means that one LED may perform quite differently than another, and none of them may be what we’ll be using a few years hence.
Read Panbo’s full article HERE.
A big gCaptain welcome to the 2,000+ new visitors that have stopped by gCaptain.com this week. The reason for the influx? Our CEO, Captain John Konrad, wrote an article on AIS technology for the venerable magize SAIL. To read the article you will have to visit your local newstand and flip to page 64 of the magazine’s May 2008 Issue… but if it’s the information you’re after, John has shared most of it already with Panbo.com’s editor Ben Ellison, click HERE to read that post now.
Congrats to gCaptain contributer Richard Rodriguez for the recent syndication of his post on whaling protests by Reuters. Next stop a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Washington State Ferry dibacles on his blog The BitterEnd.
For more of gCaptain at the news stand be sure to check out the next issue of Sail Magazine for an article by our very own cp-founder, John Konrad (with much help and advisment from Panbo).
Could it be time to dig out your old ten point dividers and loran-c charts? Probably not but the same technology behind these devices is making a comeback. HKLaw tells us:
Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2009 and related documents. Among other things, the Budget documents note enhanced LORAN (eLORAN) has been identified as the primary candidate as the national backup system for position, navigation, and timing. This budget includes funding for modernization of LORAN-C as the first step to implementation of eLORAN. Through a contracting-out arrangement, the Coast Guard will operate the LORAN-C/eLORAN system on behalf of the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate. In addition, the budget provides $20 million in new funding for more USCG marine inspectors.
eLORAN FAQ
What is eLORAN?
Enhanced Loran is an internationally standardized positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) service for use by many modes of transport and other applications. It is the latest in the long-standing and proven series of low-frequency, LOng-RAnge Navigation (LORAN) systems and takes full advantage of 21st century technology.
eLORAN meets the accuracy, availability, integrity and continuity performance requirements for aviation non-precision instrument approaches, maritime harbor entrance and approach maneuvers, land-mobile vehicle navigation and location-based services, and is a precise source of time and frequency for applications such as telecommunications.
eLORAN is an independent, dissimilar, complement to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). It allows GNSS users to retain the safety, security and economic benefits of GNSS, even when their satellite services are disrupted. (Source: USCG NavCen)
Why is it needed?
- e-Navigation is a potential enabler of new applications to meet emerging and future requirements for marine navigation
- e-Navigation has the potential to deliver direct benefits to users through improved operational capabilities and also to reduce Light Dues if it enables the GLAs to remove physical AtoNs
- the benefits of e-Navigation could be seriously eroded through the measures that would have to be taken to avoid prejudicing safety in the event of failure of a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) that was the sole source of input position data
Translated that means eLORAN will be able to enable new technologies like positioning devices that work indoors and it provides redundancy to gps and gallileo systems.
How Is It Different From GPS?
Post 9/11 Concerns:
“And look: the weaknesses of LORAN are so different from those of
GPS. GPS is vulnerable to interference because the distant satellites
deliver so little power to our receivers. LORAN, with its megawatt
stations and tall transmitting antennas, is at least 10,000 times harder
to jam. Then, you cut out single-point failures by using microwave
signals from satellites and low-frequency signals from LORAN. On
land, where buildings and mountains block GPS signals, LORAN
travels along the earth’s surface, deep into city centres, even into
buildings and - for aviation - down into the valleys, to ground level. And
like GPS, LORAN’s a complete navigation and timing system.” Professor David Last
eLORAN in Operation
To find out more visit the USCG Navigation Center’s eLORAN page then download their eLORAN info PDF.
