Ancient VOR Transmitter ??

Could it be an old OMEGA system. That was decommissioned only about 5
years ago. As I understand it, this was the original radio navigation
system for airplanes know as "Highways in the Skies". It was low
frequency. The pilot would listen to the selected frequency and hear a
steady tone if he was right on the highway, or di-dah ("A") if on one
side or dah-dit ("N") on the other.

Just a guess.


Spockstuto wrote:
Don't laugh but the FAA has stuff this old still out in the system.
A lot of NDB sites still use ancient equipment.



wrote:

I recently received this large single-frequency transmitter
from an elderly gentleman who used to be a ham radio operator.

I have not been able to pin down exactly what it is. Some
folks have given the opinion that it may be an old VOR transmitter.

I'm wondering if someone can identify it? Give a date range?
or any other information?

pictures:
http://www.yipyap.com/radio_stuff/VOR/index.htm

Chris

p.s. I know some of the pictures are fuzzy. I'll cull them out.
Thanks!

In article ,
"William W. Plummer" wrote:

Could it be an old OMEGA system. That was decommissioned only about 5
years ago. As I understand it, this was the original radio navigation
system for airplanes know as "Highways in the Skies". It was low
frequency. The pilot would listen to the selected frequency and hear a
steady tone if he was right on the highway, or di-dah ("A") if on one
side or dah-dit ("N") on the other.

I think you're talking about the old 4-course airways. OMEGA was a
hyperbolic radio navigation system (in some ways similar to LORAN). It
was used by both aircraft and ships for trans-oceanic navigation, with a
fix accuracy of about 4 nm (you can do better with a sextant).

There were only 8 transmitters in the world (and the one in the US is
still in use for other purposes), so it seems unlikely that much surplus
equipment would be available. Transmission was in the 10 kHz band.

http://webhome.idirect.com/~jproc/hyperbolic/omega.html

OK, Roy. Here's another far out guess.

Back in the late '40s I remember chiropractors using a "diathermy"
machine. I believe this would use RF energy to induce heat in the
patient's muscles. We got a TV set in 1948 and started getting lots of
interference which was subsequently traced to the diathermy machine in
town about 1 half mile away. I never saw it, but I understand it was
impressive and would have been admired by Frankenstein.

http://www.medtronic.com/activa/phys...my_safety.html

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"William W. Plummer" wrote:

... That was decommissioned only about 5
years ago. As I understand it, this was the original radio navigation
system for airplanes know as "Highways in the Skies". It was low
frequency. The pilot would listen to the selected frequency and hear a
steady tone if he was right on the highway, or di-dah ("A") if on one
side or dah-dit ("N") on the other.

I think you're talking about the old 4-course airways. ...

http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Lorenz%20SYR%2044.htm

.... technically "4-course radio range"...and they were decommissioned as
soon as VORs and ADF receivers became prevalent. In Canada that was the
early-to-mid 1960's, with the possible exception of some isolated relic.

Anything is possible, but I don't think the OP picture is one of those.

Interesting to note, that even then (and how accurately could a course have
been followed???).... even then pilots were encouraged to fly
right-of-course to avoid meeting someone else "on course":
http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/ndb-nav-history.htm