Why are Loran units on Ebay?

[Tetepare]

As I understand it, Loran C was decommissioned in USA at the end of 2015. I still have my unit mounted, I suppose it's time to tear it out.

But on Ebay I see people offering Loran C receivers at what I think are hefty prices. Why would someone buy a Loran receiver?

Am I missing something?

[hoolie]

Old stock, by people who should know better
- or nostalgia by people who do know better!

[newhaul]

Actually they are bringing loran c back online as a backup to gps so wouldnt go ripping it out quite yet.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...3edc2e90b.html

[hellosailor]

Not quite right. Apparently the old Loran C equipment can be repurposed to broadcast the eLoran signals, but the old receivers will still be paperweights. No one seems to make definitive statements but I did find " NIST was offering to fund development of a microchip sized eLoran receiver for distribution of timing signals.[6]" on the Wiki, so it appears that all new equipment will be needed.

Internet asking prices are really meaningless. I've seen products listed on Amazon at, literally, $380 when another vendor was selling them at $25, the actual MSRP. Some of those offers you see may in fact be criminals or terrorists "communicating" with each other, by placing ads that they know no one will respond to. This is just the new version of the old "ad in the classified seeking the man who lost a blue shoe in the park".

And then some folks are just sheep to be sheared, i.e. "Oh, that looks like a good present for dad, he doesn't have one of those". Hey, its the only one for sale, right?

Could still take 15 years for a system to get deployed, especially as they are talking international, and IIRC some of the US stations were dismantled or stripped.

[newhaul]

Last month in my lnm for district 13 there was somethng about testing twoards the end of July here in puget sound (several areas covering most of the district. )

[toddster8]

I think it's a variation on junk dealers reselling stuff when they don't know what it is. I used to buy sell and trade pallet loads of stuff at government surplus auctions, at the dawn of Ebay and similar sites. I'd go for pallet-loads of old lab equipment that I knew I could fix (if indeed, there was anything wrong with it.) Keep what I could use and make a few bucks selling the rest on-line. At the time, junk dealers were just buying it for scrap metal prices. Then the junk dealers got wise to what I was doing and started looking up what this stuff cost when it was new - and somehow thought that it was still worth that much. Yeah, a government lab might have paid $50K for that gadget 20 years ago, but now it's worth $50 to somebody who needs the parts. Or nothing, because the software to operate it doesn't exist any more. Doesn't stop them from listing it for $10K. Hope springs eternal. Heck, a lot of the time, they just have a piece of a system and they apparently think they have the whole thing.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by hoolie

Old stock, by people who should know better
- or nostalgia by people who do know better!

I think I have one. Any nostalgic people out there.

[AKA-None]

People also sell stuff very high to launder money

[jsap555]

Obviously people try to pass on their junk to others. Loran C was decommissioned in 2015. The transmitting stations were literally taken apart. Now we rely on GPS. Problem is GPS is not secure. Our government decided to renew a new Loran system, eLoran, which so far in this country has not been enabled. Other countries have. BUT, different countries use diffetent carrier frequencies. SO, yes eLiran units are available on eBay but you beed to check country of origin. as of now none of these work in USA...

[jsap555]

Not true. An eloran is in development. Loran C is defunct.