PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - The VC 10
Thread: The VC 10
View Single Post
Old 29th Aug 2009, 23:16
  #214 (permalink)  
ExSp33db1rd
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Smaller Antipode
Age: 89
Posts: 31
Received 17 Likes on 10 Posts
Nantucket and Bushmills were best from a reception point of view, I seem to recall, for no good reason that I can think of, and I think NAN was the only station on the USA side, certainly the only one serviceable throughout the 60's.

Loran was the primary aid of course, and on Strats and Brits, having matched the signals on a cathode ray tube one had then to switch to another visual mode, and literally count the blips along a base scale; on the 707 we had an EDO Loran receiver, and as one turned the knobs to match the signals so a series of mechanical digital numbers were turned, so that one could read off the result instantaneously.

It worked - most times - but on nights of poor reception the signals were hidden in the 'clutter', referred to as grass - 'cos that's what it looked like, and one of my early instructors gravely told me that I would have to carry a pair of scissors in my Nav. bag - to cut the grass !
ExSp33db1rd is online now