President’s Message February 2004 I am pleased to report that the ILA is doing extremely well and to review some important issues briefly. The ILA’s 32nd Annual Convention and Technical Symposium in Boulder, Colorado was a tremendous success in every way. Approximately 35 papers were presented, the meeting venue was superb, attendees had a great time, and the ILA earned enough to fund additional activities in support of Loran. Once again I would like to thank Tom Celano and Ben Peterson for meeting coordination, Amy Fitzgerald of Timing Solutions and the ILA Ops Center for their organizational work, all sponsors for their generous support, and numerous others who contributed in many ways. At the Board of Directors meeting in Boulder, it was decided to hold ILA 33 in Tokyo next October, and Mr. Tamotsu Ikeda has begun meeting preparations. This will be the first ILA meeting in Asia, and I am proud that the ILA is taking this important step towards expanding its global relationships and membership. It will undoubtedly be an extremely interesting meeting, and I would encourage all members to make plans to attend. Please visit the ILA website www.loran.org for details and periodic updates. The ILA is actively cooperating with organizers of two important European meetings. ENC GNSS 2004 will be held in Rotterdam this May, and several Loran papers will undoubtedly be presented. Navtech Seminars and GPS Supply, who are well known for providing outstanding seminars on GPS and related topics, will also be holding a Loran tutorial associated with ENC GNSS 2004. More information will be forthcoming, and please check http://www.navtechgps.com/ or www.loran.org for details. In addition, the ILA is pleased to cooperate once again with the German Institute of Navigation (DGON) on the European Radionavigation Systems and Services (EURAN) 2004 meeting, June 22-23 in Munich. Please note abstracts are due by March 12, and details can be found on http://www.dgon.de/content/index.htm. In the United States, the FAA’s Loran evaluation program and the USCG’s Loran modernization efforts are both proceeding well. The FAA is to submit its final report to the Department of Transportation (DOT) by March 31, 2004, and the DOT is subsequently going to issue a clear Loran policy statement. Note the FAA report will include information on Loran’s ability to meet the FAA’s required navigation performance (RNP) standards, the USCG’s harbor entrance and approach (HEA) standards, and a cost/benefit Loran study by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. The entire international radionavigation and timing community is anxious to see this long-awaited report and to receive a positive Loran decision. A DOT report entitled “Radionavigation Systems: A Capabilities Investment Strategy” was just released (see RNAV SYSTEMS TASK FORCE RPT at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/), and appears to set the stage for the Loran evaluation report. This DOT strategy study concentrated on the assessment of radionavigation systems that could backup GPS in multiple applications, and considered evolving needs in the radionavigation and timing communities. It contained much positive language on Loran, included good recommendations (e.g. exploration of collocation of WAAS, NDGPS, and Loran facilities), and noted Loran is a potential backup for marine Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) and for aviation Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) systems in the future. Moreover, the report explicitly stated Loran is the only multimodal backup to GPS, and that Loran should be made a long-term part of the US radionavigation system mix if Loran meets the identified performance and cost/benefit standards. I am also pleased to report that the ongoing US Loran modernization program continues to receive excellent bipartisan support from Congress and from user groups (e.g. the National Boating Federation has restated its support for Loran and Loran modernization). The House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation providing $22.5M for Loran recapitalization in FY2004, and President Bush signed the legislation into law in late January. But of course the FY2005 funding process is already well underway, and I would urge all US ILA members to contact their senators and representatives today to ask for $25M in Loran recapitalization support for FY2005. See http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php to get contact information for your senators and representative. Please note if you cannot get email contact information, it is best to fax letters to individual offices to assure receipt, as regular mail can be extremely slow due to security concerns. In conclusion, the ILA made tremendous strides in 2003, and we are looking forward to a great year in 2004, highlighted by a positive Loran policy statement in the US. Please be sure to be a part of that progress by renewing your ILA membership now, providing all necessary updates to the Operations Center, and planning to attend ILA33. Respectfully,
|
