By Arslan Shaukat

Long Range Navigation version C

Originally a marine navigation system
Became feasible for aircraft navigation with the introduction
of microprocessors

Frequency of Operation: 100kHz (all stations)

 A HYPERBOLIC SYSTEM

i.e. lines of position are hyperbolas

This results from the fact that the lines of position are
determined by measuring the DIFFERENCE in
distance from two points.

One station is referred to as the Master and the others as Slaves

At least two lines of position are required for a

position fix thus more than one slave is required.

A useful property of the hyperbola is that its

tangent at any point bisects the angle subtended by
the line joining the two foci
Exercise: Use this property to determine where the
best geometry occurs (LOP at 90)

How do we determine the time difference?

Each station, starting with the Master, transmits a
series of pulses with the following shape:

This pulse has a

bandwidth of about
20kHz

Each station transmits a series of eight of these

pulses
Pulse separation is 1000s (1ms)

Note: In most chains the master transmits a ninth

pulse after 2000s. This can be used to indicate
the status or integrity of the chains signals.

How do we identify the pulses from each station?

The stations transmit their signals in sequence. The

delay between signals from each station is such that
the signal from the previous transmission is out of
the coverage area before the next is sent.

Thus they always appear in the same order

A group consisting of a Master and up to four

slaves is called a chain
Each chain is identified by a Group Repetition Rate
(GRI) which is the time between transmissions from
the master.

Each slave transmits its pulse train at a specified

interval after the master has transmitted.
This is called the emission delay (ED) and is made
up of the master-slave time (MS) and a coding
delay (CD)

Due to the long distances covered by each

LORAN C chain, the power transmitted must be
high (0.5 to 4 MW)

Propagation is by ground wave and thus has to be

vertically polarized

Antenna therefore is a vertical mast (ideally a

quarter wavelength long (3km) (10,000 ft.)

Not very practical!!

Antennas are typically about 400m high

To improve the current flow, many are top loaded

They are still not very efficient (~10%)

Top loaded antenna with ground plane

Receivers require a data base which provides

the location (Lat/Lon) of the Master and Slave stations

the GRI of the chains to be used

the Time Delays for the individual stations
The LORAN C signal travels both by ground wave and sky wave

ground wave gives stable, reliable timing

sky wave does not due to the variable nature of the
ionosphere

ground wave is attenuated more and hence is weaker and can

be contaminated by the sky wave

 Since sky wave is always delayed by a minimum of 30s, the

positive-going zero crossover of the third cycle of the ground
wave is used for timing

Problems to be solved by receiver

Signals strength may vary by 120dB
Large dynamic range required
Noise at LF can be very high due to long range
propagation of interference (e.g. lightning in tropics)
Signal to noise ratio can be 20 dB

Receiver Operation:
Searches for Master pulses using known GRI
PLL locks on to carrier to generate master clock
Locks on to slave pulses

Measures Master/slave time interval and subtracts the

Emission Delay (ED)
Calculates the distances and position

Error Sources

Variation in propagation speed (land vs water, type of terrain)

Changes in signal strength

Absolute Accuracy depends on geometry

0.1 to 0.25NM
Repeatability

20 to 100m

 Integrity
Monitors are installed throughout the LORAN C
coverage area
These monitors adjust the transmitter timing to
compensate for changing propagation conditions

If excessive errors are detected, the master

transmitter is commanded to blink the ninth pulse
off and on to indicate which station is unreliable
For airborne use, this can be done within 10 seconds
of detection