Taken in Riske Creek, British Columbia
There isn't much left of the once famous Loran C landmark in Riske Creek, BC. About 20km west of Williams Lake, in the vast open fields, was a 625-foot tower that from 1977 to 2010 worked in concert with towers in Washington and Alaska states to help ships at sea determine their locations using a 100 kilohertz ultra low frequency that followed the Earth’s curvature.
The Loran-C (Long Range Navigation) was a terrestrial radio navigation system that used low-frequency radio transmitters in multiple deployment (triangulation) to determine the location and speed of the receiver (ship).
Since 1977 the Cariboo-Chilcotin tower worked in concert with towers in Washington and Alaska states to help ships determine their locations.
Each Loran-C station was within a group of three to five transmitting stations known as a chain and transmitted a 100 kilohertz frequency between stations. Each station sends a series of eight navigational pulses, with a user area up to 1,000 miles from the transmitting station. In recent years widespread use of Global Positioning Satellites rendered the Loran-C obsolete.
All U.S. Loran-C stations ceased transmitting Oct. 1, 2010. An advisory issued by the Canadian Coast Guard on Jan. 20, 2010 said, “Loran-C systems in Canada and the U.S. work in tandem. Once the U.S. service is discontinued, the Canadian system will not be operational. Consequently Canada will also decommission its Loran-C system in 2010.”
Local resident and former B.C. Tel employee Graham Smith says he was at the tower and adjoining building when they were commissioned. And although he did not work on the project, he says B.C. Tel set up the tower’s data circuits as well as provided regular phone service through to Riske Creek to replace the crank phone service of the day in order for the project to be realized.
Smith says the Riske Creek location was chosen because it was in a “big, flat field.”
“It has the right characteristics for transmitting the signal for thousands of miles.”
The following pictures ARE NOT MINE, they were found on the websites:
http://www.jproc.c..._cdn_stations.htmlhttp://edebock.wor...om/category/canada http://www.virtualtourist.com and
http://www.wltribu...ews/132019728.html