What the heck is: Loran 797

Fidgit

.
Nov 16, 2019
19
Catalina 22 4042 Any water in driving distance!
Hey everyone!
over the winter I bought my first sailboat! (Oday25) It's a bit of a project, but that's a story for another time.

The boat has one of these Loran 797 receivers on it. Unfortunately, I am but a poor ignorant Millennial and I have no idea what this thing is! :biggrin:
Best I can tell, it's a radio navigation tool of some kind. I do have some knowledge of radio navigation in aviation (NDB's, VOR's and the like) but this seems a little different and I'd love to know more about it!
Googling "Loran 797" just brings up page after page of people trying to sell the dang things. Maybe that's an omen that I should leave it in the past.. but my curiosity is getting the better of me.
Thanks!
Wes.

Loran 797.jpg
 
Jan 25, 2011
2,391
S2 11.0A Anacortes, WA
LORAN..Stands for Long Range Navigation. Sort of a predecessor to gps. They used shore based transmitters to transmit timed signals on low frequencies for long range. The early ones required a paper chart with loran lines on it to plot a position. When Loran C came out, the receiver would give a lat-long position. Thats the short version...I used to have that exact receiver you show. Back in the time, it was the latest and greatest. Find a museum that would take it. You can google “loran” and read up on it. Don’t include the model number...
 
Jan 4, 2010
1,037
Farr 30 San Francisco
You can see the lines on some old charts big sweeping curves with numbers on them. Somehow you could get the number off the set and then plot the intersection on the chart and voila you know where you are. I think the US shut down their network, maybe Canada still runs theirs.
 
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Fidgit

.
Nov 16, 2019
19
Catalina 22 4042 Any water in driving distance!
ah. I thought loran was a manufacturer, lol
I figured it relied on ground based towers, but I was hoping they would still exist. Oh well, still and interesting piece of history.
Thanks!
 
Jun 21, 2004
2,532
Beneteau 343 Slidell, LA
Never have used one; have to agree with Mark, find a museum for it and remove the clutter from your boat. If you’re going to use paper charts to pilot / navigate, a handheld GPS would suffice. If you want a larger display, without paper charts, install a navigation app on your tablet or purchase a dedicated chart plotter.
Congratulations on the purchase of your new boat. Not to worry, we all have “a bit of a project” that we are working on! You’ve landed at a good spot; lots of good info here to help you along the way.
 
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Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Was magic back in the day.. Gave lat/long, course made good, speed over ground and had waypoint capability.. Much easier/faster/more accurate than sextant.. Now that they've turned off the US system, pretty much a non workable museum piece.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,993
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Congratulations @Fidgit on joining the forum and getting your first sail boat. May Poseidon treat you and your boat with care and understanding of a father.

May the four winds bring you breezes that let you fly.

Ahhh LORAN the magic of man. A triumph of engineering that brought seafarers back safely to port when the waters were disturbed. The skippers here have faithfully shared the nature of the gift you received with your acquisition of a sailing boat. Oh the stories LORAN might tell of dark and stormy nights, green water breaking over the bow, the rocks, a beacon of light, and the hum of the true signal showing the course to shelter - safety - the warm hugs from worried family members.

Unfortunately The LORAN like the DoDo bird has been lost in time. They are but a weight without purpose. Attempts to sell them are but a fool’s errand. I fear finding a home for your treasure may be a search with no path or map.

Fear not we sailors have been resourceful. Many have removed the LORAN from our boats and placed them reverently in a box on a shelf in the garage. A memory of days gone by collecting dust awaiting that fearful day when that person whom shares the storage space shouts, “when are you going to clean the garage and dump that useless stuff?”:eek:
 
Mar 2, 2019
433
Oday 25 Milwaukee
The most important thing was ,you didn't know something and you were humble enough to ask for help. As a long time Oday 25 owner welcome .
They aren't the fastest . We just make sure we have the best music and the best food ....
 
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Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
I used LORAN exactly one time only. I was sailing on my girl friend-at-the-time father's boat and he had LORAN. He let me play with it and fix a position on the chart.

If you have a good wireless plan with unlimited data, buy yourself one of the largest screen phones that is also water proof.... or one of the tablets that can also function like a phone. Download the following apps..

Navonics
Windy
NOAA Radar

Get a mount so you can have it in the cockpit... and maybe run a 12V USB charge station to the cockpit.

If you are doing any longer range cruising along the coast, you should get a VHF radio with AIS capabilities so you don't have to worry about getting hit by a big ship. I have the New Horizon GX2200. It can also double as a GPS device if you drop your phone overboars.

You are good to go so long as you have a cell signal. If you cruise in obscure places, add a cell phone boost antenna on your boat and ... you are still good to go.

Unless you are planning on being more than three miles from shore, you probably will never need more than that.

So in short.... get a water replant phone or tablet and a modern VHF radio. Download some apps.
 
Feb 21, 2013
4,638
Hunter 46 Point Richmond, CA
.............The boat has one of these Loran 797 receivers on it. Unfortunately, ..................I have no idea what this thing is................
Ditto Mark Maulden.............used it to navigate up and down the Atlantic Coast in the 80's many times.
 

capta

.
Jun 4, 2009
4,766
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
Hold on, don't throw that dinosaur away just yet.
Last I heard, and admittedly it was some time back, eastern Canadian fishermen were still using the system. I'd do a bit of Googling to see if they still do.
However, it does use a dedicated antenna and if you don't have one.....
I threw the best LORAN ever made in the trash a few years back (I'm in the Caribbean and shipping it amywhere would have been prohibitive) and it broke my heart. I've been using it since 1959 and though not as accurate as GPS, it's repeatability was better, which is a big plus for trap fishermen.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,702
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Our boat has one, the ‘C’ version, that was from the PO. Used to work until the system was shut down. Some talk the gov will reactivate. Worked pretty well, but not near as effective as GPS. Took sometimes five minutes to acquire, but worked nicely once set.
 
Mar 1, 2012
2,182
1961 Rhodes Meridian 25 Texas coast
Many flights trans Atlantic aboard a Navy transport, using Loran for navigation in the 60's. On a cruising sailboat east coast and GOM in the 80's.

GPS is better :)
 
May 25, 2012
4,333
john alden caravelle 42 sturgeon bay, wis
was a Northstar 800c fan back in the day, both on the ships and aeolus. it's on the shelf back at the house. B&G rdf before that. depth sounder and eyeballs and time/distance before that
 
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Jun 2, 2004
3,390
Hunter 23.5 Fort Walton Yacht Club, Florida
Just for trivia's sake before GPS guided bombs we used it to drop bombs on targets that could not be seen. Not as accurate as the new stuff but in it's day it was truly impressive. LORAN was obsolete long before it was turned off. One of the reasons I had heard was a lot of different equipment such as Flood Gauges and ATMs got their clock signals using it.
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
@Pirate Dave; When I bought my boat back in '91, There was an RDF manual plotter aboard. The boat had been trucked from Redondo Beach (Cal) to Houston/Clear Lake. I asked the PO about the plotter, and he told me that on the west coast, it worked well... but he admitted that in the channels around Galveston Bay it was pretty useless..
 
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Feb 2, 2010
373
Island Packet 37 Hull #2 Harpswell Me
I used to use Loran C when i flew. Our set had a built in osciliscope, where you would identify the master station and then march the three slave stations into alignment . Its all a matter of time difference from the master to slaves, which is very similar to how Omega used to work and exactly how GPS does work. I dont think there are any ground station transmitters still working. Keep it for a souvenir .
 
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Jun 21, 2004
2,532
Beneteau 343 Slidell, LA
Congratulations @Fidgit on joining the forum and getting your first sail boat. May Poseidon treat you and your boat with care and understanding of a father.

May the four winds bring you breezes that let you fly.

Ahhh LORAN the magic of man. A triumph of engineering that brought seafarers back safely to port when the waters were disturbed. The skippers here have faithfully shared the nature of the gift you received with your acquisition of a sailing boat. Oh the stories LORAN might tell of dark and stormy nights, green water breaking over the bow, the rocks, a beacon of light, and the hum of the true signal showing the course to shelter - safety - the warm hugs from worried family members.

Unfortunately The LORAN like the DoDo bird has been lost in time. They are but a weight without purpose. Attempts to sell them are but a fool’s errand. I fear finding a home for your treasure may be a search with no path or map.

Fear not we sailors have been resourceful. Many have removed the LORAN from our boats and placed them reverently in a box on a shelf in the garage. A memory of days gone by collecting dust awaiting that fearful day when that person whom shares the storage space shouts, “when are you going to clean the garage and dump that useless stuff?”:eek:
John,
You could have been a poet!