Welcome to the NavList Message Boards.

NavList:

A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding

Compose Your Message

Message:αβγ
Message:abc
Add Images & Files
    Name or NavList Code:
    Email:
       
    Reply
    Re: Shortwave radio and the evolution of celestial navigation
    From: Francis Upchurch
    Date: 2018 Jun 12, 21:08 +0100

    Frank,
    I think you are right. 
    I have spoken to a couple of old local Penzance sea salt friends recently on 
    this. They both did the "milk run" UK-Canaries-West Indies-Azores-UK in the 
    late 1960s-early 1970s. Usually 24 ft wooden type semi seaworthy boats.) 
    Mostly using only meridian passages, no intercept method (far too 
    complicated!). What they needed was cheap quartz watches and SW radio time 
    signals. (not necessarily Sony transistors. Ordinary cheap valve jobs or 
    crystal sets would do). For simple trade wind sailing this would do fine and 
    probably still would?
    So quartz watch and SW radio time signals received by whatever primitive 
    receiver technology would do. I guess if you had the radio time signal, you 
    do not even need the quartz watch. 
    My wonderful Invicta cheap mechanical copy of the Rolex submariner has kept 
    +3-8 seconds going rate consistently for the last 2 years (checked daily and 
    never outside this range) and would easily win the longitude prize. This plus 
    any cheap  radio time signal (transistor or otherwise, even crystal sets, my 
    experiments a few years ago prove this. Do not even need batteries for 
    these.)  Would do fine.
    Trade wind sailing no problem with the simplest of equipment. Good mechanical 
    watch + time signal from simple SW radio. (Unless , like me you are a 
    lunatic! No watch time needed! No radio needed.). Lunars would do it.(just).
    Francis
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Frank Reed
    Sent: 12 June 2018 20:16
    To: francis@pharmout.co.uk
    Subject: [NavList] Shortwave radio and the evolution of celestial navigation
    
    Bob Goethe, suggesting an addition to Ed's chronology, wrote a few days ago:
    "*I think the combination of transistor shortwave radios, station WWV, and 
    Seiko's quartz watch is what finally allowed the St. Hilaire intercept-method 
    to come into its own among small boat sailors.*"
    This is an interesting hypothesis. Bob, could you elaborate on your thinking 
    here? Can you think of any evidence that would support this model? Does 
    anyone else have thoughts on this? Did WWV really change things when it came 
    on the air? There were other radio time signals. How about shortwave 
    transistor radios? Transistor radios were more expensive than tube radios for 
    quite a few years. I do agree that quartz watches made celestial navigation 
    cheaper and therefore more accessible, but that seems like one modest 
    innovation among many in the 1950s and 1960s. 
    One suggestion: I think you should drop any mention of the intercept method, 
    per se, when describing this hypothesis. That strikes me as essentially 
    irrelevant to the issue that you're raising, and surely the intercept method 
    was the primary method of celestial navigation taught to the tens of 
    thousands of new navigators created in the Second World War, well before the 
    solid state electronics revolution.
    Maybe this hypothesis should be considered in connection with a bigger 
    question. What made bluewater sailing more accessible in the past fifty 
    years? Was it some change in celestial navigation, or were other factors 
    really key?
    Frank Reed
    
    
    [plain text auto-generated]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    NavList message boards and member settings: http://fer3.com/NavList
    Members may optionally receive posts by email.
    To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    
    
    : 
    http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Shortwave-radio-evolution-celestial-navigation-FrankReed-jun-2018-g42229
    
    
    
    
    

       
    Reply
    Browse Files

    Drop Files

    NavList

    What is NavList?

    Get a NavList ID Code

    Name:
    (please, no nicknames or handles)
    Email:
    Do you want to receive all group messages by email?
    Yes No

    A NavList ID Code guarantees your identity in NavList posts and allows faster posting of messages.

    Retrieve a NavList ID Code

    Enter the email address associated with your NavList messages. Your NavList code will be emailed to you immediately.
    Email:

    Email Settings

    NavList ID Code:

    Custom Index

    Subject:
    Author:
    Start date: (yyyymm dd)
    End date: (yyyymm dd)

    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site