markp860

Lol I hear ya I could run the prog but I do not know enough about loran chains etc to get it to work. Good Luck to ya

ChuckA From "Land of the Lost"

Ok I'm going to let the cat out of the bag , My brother found the book online its Called Fishable Wrecks And Rockpiles Author Tim Coleman. I guess this guy wrote for Newengland fisherman or something .My brother has a hard time remembering his name and he rememeber'd the title of this book from 25 years ago I cant figure it out I just agree with him.

Bryan A.

Tim Coleman

I believe he still writes for The Fisherman.

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2003 Parker 2530 "El Mar".......click the pic
1973 Seacraft 20SF

Bob & Mag

Chuck, If you're still looking for your garmin manual, go to their site. You can d/l the manuals as pdf files. They even have the books for older models out of production. Meanwhile I used those numbers you posted and came up with that BIG rock in my backyard, that I always hit with the lawnmower....am I close???

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Smoke free 8+ Months!

ChuckA From "Land of the Lost"

If the rock is that big why are you hitting it and those numbers should get you out off westbrook so you did something wrong Mount the GPS in the boat not on the lawn mower . I found my book my Garmin will indeed switch the numbers over so with all this I really did'nt need any help.But we all had fun .Like Roy says lets Have Fun

fishinsurfer

Chuck, You posted your question a long time ago, but I thought I would try to answer just in case it may help someone. Being a major wreck hound, it would be fantastic to have a formula or program to plug loran numbers into and get perfect gps number out. However, these conversion programs will alway have inherent errors which will always be far enough off to make them useless unless you want to be a quarter mile away. Thing to do is install a Loran in your boat. Peruse ebay and find your self a decent machine on the cheap. Now you can run to the loran spot, do a search and hopefully find the piece and log it into your gps. Our friends at the Coast Guard have made an adjustment to the chains in our area. So a wise thing to do is go to a spot you already have in gps and compare the listed loran numbers to see what the differerntial is in your area. They you can apply this factor to #'s in your book which will help immensly as you search. Finding these spots takes alot of work, but can pay off big
time if you can find a few cherries. Good Luck with your wreck hunting
Capt. Rick

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Scup

Everything Fishinsurfer stated is correct. The problem, however, while you may find a Loran unit on the cheap, its antenna will not be cheap. I work part-time at West Marine, and I do not even think we stock them anymore. We could order one out for you, but now you would have to incur the cost of the antenna, its mount, and the fact you will have to live with that monster of an antenna stuck on your boat. I am not even sure just how much longer Loran is going to be supported? Most Garmin GPS units do have the capability of converting TD to GPS units. While I sell them, I have no idea just how good Garmin's algorithm is for the conversion. I used to place practice mine fields for the Navy and hence had to be able to navigate very precisely to exact off shore locations. Loran always had good repeatability for a specific unit that one might have owned. In other words, if you marked a spot with your Raytheon unit, you would then be in pretty good shape to return to the exact TD. However, if you would publish your TD, there could be quite a bit of error if somebody else tried to find your spot using a different make or even model of a Loran unit. Current GPS units avoid this headache completely. It really does not matter what unit you own or who makes it, you should be able to get to within 10 meters on the average (95% of the time) to any lat-long point published. For all practical purposes, that means you should expect to be within 15 feet 50% of the time. Should you have your WAAS enabled, and have WAAS coverage, then you should be within arms length of your position. Most do not enable WAAS since if you are still confused or lost when you are 15 feet of where you want to be, another few more feet of accuracy is not going to help. The negative thing about WAAS is that it uses more internal processing power, hence it takes a fraction a second longer to do the number crunching. Most do not think its worth the slight time delay. However, if I accidentally dropped my $250 eye glasses over the side in ten feet of water, I would enable WAAS because I know I going to be coming back with a snorkel and mask.

fishinsurfer

Hi Scup, I own 2 Northstar 800 which I found on ebay - I think I paid around 3-4 hundred apiece with couple and power cords and manuals. At the time, I sent them into Northstar and had a few minor issues fixed on both machines. Northstar no longer supports their lorans meaning they will not fix nor provide any parts for their Lorans. I have seen cheaper units such as Raymarine/Mircologic go for around 100. on ebay all complete. These are nowhere as good as the Northstar units, but they do function. Furuno was the only company still making Lorans - I am not sure they do anymore. Not sure how much longer the Loran towers will be broadcasting, so I have been trying to run down as many wrecks and hang numbers as possible and converting to gps. I actually enjoy "looking" and building up drops. Best time to do it is in the summer when there is hopefully some life around. You also need a good bottom recorder and know how to read bottom.
Capt. Rick

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IN SEARCH OF BIG FREDDIE