HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: Looking-Glass on March 04, 2016, 0839 UTC
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For those of you who like chasing NDB's on Low Wave, like I do, just be aware that 181 Australian NavAid NDB's will be turned off from 26th May 2016 due to the march of technology in the aviation sector.
A small number have already been turned off permanently during 2015.
Some privately owned beacons may endure past 26th May 2016.
On the positive side, I guess it will result in clearer frequencies and thus make it easier to log some overseas beacons! ;)
So look for them, hear them, and log them while you can... ::)
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There has been a fair amount of NDB decommissioning in the US and Canada also, not rampant at this point, but noticeable. There have also been a number of missing NDBs coming back up, which is encouraging. The future of these low tech navigation aids seems to be a mystery.
The decommissioning of some 5 dozen DGPS sites in the USA was supposed to occur in January of this year, and everybody was looking for a sudden shutdown of their local pests. It did not occur, and it appears that only a couple of them actually went off. Apparently there was enough public comment to delay this action until it could be studied further.
It is certainly obvious that the world has become dependent on the GPS infrastructure, and this has apparently scared some folks who question this reliance, and see the need for old school backup systems to be in place. This is an interesting read:
http://www.npr.org/2016/02/22/467210492/u-s-navy-brings-back-navigation-by-the-stars-for-officers