LORAN Beta Test Available

[Tom/CalClassic]

Jorge found another map, this time the middle Atlantic, and parts of Europe (Azores to Berlin).

historicalcharts.noaa.gov/search.php

Search for

berlin

in the title:

and choose the Cartographic 1948 map.

This one has more detail than some, often with delay lines every 20 usec. Other maps have that in places though.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi,

Just updated the Beta1b version, now if you do not get the alignment process correct at the beginning you will discover this at SS3, rather than waiting for SS5. Should save people some time. If the alignment is not correct, there will be no movable peak in SS3 or SS4. Go back to SS1 and start over. Only file updated is the GUI xml file.

I have also updated the tutorial with the new information from Beta1b.

[chris_c]

Thanks for these updates.

Have now installed LORAN in a number of aircraft and used it on TCA Flight 601 (1954 timetable) from Barbados to Montreal via Bermuda. It made finding Kindley Field easier but there were no usable signals for much of the Barbados-Bermuda leg. Then discovered that it appears that the North Star's were not fitted with LORAN in TCA service. Oh well...

Chris

[Tom/CalClassic]

You are welcome. Yeah during the day the 750 NM limit really puts a crimp in long range navigation, and the southern Caribbean is not covered at all. I'm surprised they didn't have LORAN for the North Atlantic when they flew that route.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Bill,

I was thinking about your issue while flying. If you do the readings as usual and THEN go back and do the 10 usec reading again (the order is not important) for the Master and then do the same thing for the Slave, those most sensitive of readings should be the latest possible. Then you might have time to end up with a valid reading?

[Jorge]

Just a quick update.

For those that would NOT like to install the Freestyle Script on your system, or are having issues with the size/readability of it, I can confirm that the Lucida Handwriting option that comes default with Windows since Win-7 works better if you are having issues with the size of the font in the notepad.

Simple change is to replace the Freestyle entries with the Lucida and you are set.

Of course, if the typed formats are better vis-a-vis readability, then Courier New or even simple Ariel seem to be the best options at this time.

Again, this is on my screen with a resolution of 1600 x 900, so results may vary a little on your ends.

As Tom says, Hope this helps!

Jorge
Miami, FL

[Tom/CalClassic]

Yeah, some feedback on the preferred font for the final release would be helpful. Thanks!

[Jorge]

For the "handwritten" stuff in this case, I think the Lucida Handwriting actually looks better in this gauge than the Freestyle Script.

I still think the Freestyle looks better in the Weatherships, but that's because of the overall size of the area being used to "write" the information when compared to the size of the "writing" area in this particular gauge.

Jorge
Miami, FL

[Defender]

Tom,

I'm not getting your latest GUI gauge from the link you sent yesterday. It seems to contain the version created 13 May and that behaves just as before. There's no tutorial link either. I've tried deleting the earlier V1b download but that didn't help. Maybe resend as BetaV1c?

Thanks for your advice on how to deal with the moving positions. The SS3 mod should help too. I'll try it out later.

Bill

[Tom/CalClassic]

Thanks, I’m going to put out a 1c soon anyway, since I have decided to solve the problem of the notepad entries going red as you are flying along. When you select SS5 and that value turns green that will freeze the measured lat/lon, so it will never turn red.

[Tom/CalClassic]

OK, here is Beta 1c. It has the changes described above, and when you enter the correct number for the 10 usec spot (i.e. SS5) it locks the system for that side of the notepad so it doesn't wander while you are flying.

The xml files changed are GUI, SYS, STA, MAP_ATL, and MAP_PAC files.

I found I did not have Lucida Handwriting on my machine, so I couldn't use that. I decided on Comic Sans MS among the default fonts. I thought I would use Segoe Print, but the number 1 looks like a 3 to me.

Here are the default fonts for Windows 7:

wpf.2000things.com/2011/03/30/261-standard-fonts-in-windows-7/

Hope this helps,

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi again,

OK, here is Beta 1d. There was a general agreement that the screen should not freeze while flying, it should continue. So this version does that. However, to simulate a navigator writing down the numbers as he gets them and then using those numbers to get his plane's position, once you have a green number in the SS5 step it will never go "bad" and turn red again. Once you enter a good number it will always be good until you reset the notepad. There are two ways to do that - first, one side at a time, is to throw the station switch. Once you do this remember that the OTHER side's data is probably not valid if you've been flying along. So remember to do the other side of the notepad (the other station pair) as well! The quicker way is to cycle the filter switch up and down, which resets the entire notepad at one time. Remember to write down your lat/lon and/or plot the location on the map before you do this, all data is lost during a notepad reset except the blue stars on the map.


Thanks,

[mrcapitalism]

I was just making a 2nd attempt after a CTD, okay good.

EDIT: I'm going to try and describe the notepad bug again. I don't think I got across what the issue really was, and I feel there was a lot of development "around it" as a result.

[Tom/CalClassic]

There was an error in the STA file in the original upload of Beta 1e, download and install the LORAN folder again.

Sorry,

[mrcapitalism]

The notepad issue that I'm having seems to be mostly related to this function:

If you're lazy you can just click the Total value at the beginning and it will change to the correct value. You can then ignore the 10s, 50s, and 500s values. But where's the fun in that? Click the Total again to go back to manual entry.

On my previous bug report, this feature "Click the Total again to go back to manual entry" either didn't work, or wasn't implemented yet. As my major problem was that I was "stuck" with 'automatic total' mode.

What was being displayed on my screenshot,



Is the "quick total" for pair 1H4 (3143us) being displayed on the right side total value. This was because that happened to be the first valid station I had selected on either side of the notepad. Immediately before that moment every value on the notepad (including the totals) was 0. Immediately upon selecting 1H4 on the left side, the 1H4 "quick total" of 3143us was populating on the right side.