I bet Smuj regrets asking if any of this stuff worked properly. The MOD in its ignorance never replaced a Nav system until it had been finally switched off. Those in the right place when "Hand held GPS" modules came out had the edge and the American BX was the place to pick them up. The average G.I. soon found that they were too complex for the average grunt so you could get one for less than a hundred bucks in the Ft Bragg BX. A bargain in those days but they needed to be placed in a paper cup and stuck to the window frame with bodge tape to get a signal.
Just before Loran disappeared I was being checked eastbound across the pond and no "external aids" were permitted. In mid ocean the SS2 Loran chain went off the air. There was no warning published and we were under total overcast. Normally I would have emulated Brian 48nav and waited for SL3 to come up but Nav activity had to be maintained. The only thing remaining was a Consol count. A kit left over from the war and you needed to count 60 dots and dashes for a position line. Well I counted the Bushmills (MWN) broadcast and tuned in Ploneis (TRQ) to do it again when the checker said "I'm not living through that again, take your GPS position from the paper cup and we'll call it "B" maintained".
