SYNCHRONIZING LORAN-C MASTER STATIONS TO COORDINATED UNIVERSAL TIME

G.R. Westling, M.D. Sakahara, C.J. Justice

Abstract: In 1987 the Coast Guard anticipating Public Law began improving the synchronization of its Loran-C master stations. Two parallel approaches were begun. One was to develop a hardware addition to the master station's frequency standard rack to provide timing offsets and maintain a synchornization with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) using GPS timing receivers. The other was to examine administrative methods to improve the master station synchronization as reported by the U.S. naval Observatory (USNO). Three such methods were studied: frequency control, time step control and modified master station control. These methods were used at three Loran-C master stations: Seneca, NY, Dana, TN, and Malone, FL. All three methods achieved significant synchronization improvement. Key improvement factors were timely and precise time-difference offset reporting by USNO and no-notice timing corrections by the Coast Guard.
Published in: Proceedings of the 21th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting
November 28 - 30, 1989
Sheraton Hotel
Redondo Beach, California
Pages: 491 - 500
Cite this article: Westling, G.R., Sakahara, M.D., Justice, C.J., "SYNCHRONIZING LORAN-C MASTER STATIONS TO COORDINATED UNIVERSAL TIME," Proceedings of the 21th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Redondo Beach, California, November 1989, pp. 491-500. https://doi.org/10.33012/1989.14543
Full Paper: ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit
Sign In