Chapter 14

Omega was the first truly global radio navigation system for aircraft.

 The

OMEGA radio navigation system, developed by the United States Navy for military aviation users, was approved for full implementation in 1968 and promised a true worldwide oceanic coverage capability and the ability to achieve four-mile accuracy when fixing a position. Initially, the system was to be used for navigating nuclear bombers across the North Pole to Russia. Later, it was found useful for submarines.

When the eight station chain became operational, day to day operations were managed by the United States Coast Guard in partnership with Argentina, Norway, Liberia, France, Japan and Australia. Coast Guard personnel operated two U.S. stations one in La Moure, North Dakota and the other in Haiku, Hawaii. OMEGA employed hyperbolic radio navigation techniques and the chain operated in the VLF portion of the spectrum between 10 to 14 kHz. Near its end, it evolved into a system used primarily by the civil community. By receiving signals from three stations, am Omega receiver could locate a position to within 4 nm using the principle of phase comparison of signals. In the Royal Canadian Navy, the OMEGA system was used in the AOR, 280 and Halifax class ships.

John Alvin Pierce, the Father of Omega, first proposed the use of continuous wave modulation of VLF signals for navigation purposes in the 1940s. Working at the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he proved the viability of measuring the phase difference of radio signals to compute a location solution. Pierce originally called this system RADUX. After experimenting with various frequencies, he settled on a phase stable, 10 kHz transmission in the 1950s. Thinking this frequency was the far end of the radio spectrum, Pierce dubbed the transmission Omega, for the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Radux-Omega showed the possibilities of very-lowfrequency propagation, but there were fears about ambiguity errors if a single low frequency were used on its own. In the 1950s two new factors appeared the inertial navigation system (INS) and the great increase in electronic system reliability following the introduction of the transistor. INS was not all that accurate, particularly in ships, where it had to run for days on end without correction, but it could certainly carry over short losses of signal and resolve any cycle slippage that might have occurred, while better reliability meant that such outages were far less likely anyway.

Thus ambiguities might be much less of a problem than thought, and the development of a single frequency system began to seem feasible. The 40 kHz of Radux was dropped and a new system using transmitters in California and Hawaii was set up, transmitting at 12.5 kHz. They provided good results and two further transmitters were added in Panama and the Post Office station at Criggion, North Wales. All these stations ran on their own time standards, the development by Dr. L. Essen of the National Physical Laboratory. This new type of extremely stable crystal oscillator, named after him, made this progress possible. Later, Dr. Essen also built the first cesium beam atomic resonator.

These experiments continued throughout the 1950s and provided a great deal of data on propagation characteristics. Nothing that was found discouraged the idea of a navaid operating at low frequencies. In 1963, an Omega Implementation Committee (OIC) was formed chaired by Prof. Pierce and consisting of most those who had been concerned with the earlier experiments. They were charged with designing the new navaid and, on the basis of their experiments, took the decisions about the Omega would work the choice of frequencies, location of transmitters, power levels, etc. Originally, it was calculated that a 10 kW power level from each transmitter would prove more than sufficient for reliable reception. Due to the high cost of constructing VLF antennas (Omega antenna towers were more than 1,200 feet in height), the first experimental transmissions were actually existing VLF communications stations that were modified for Omega transmissions. This committee always denied later that the Decca work on Delrac, disclosed 9 years earlier, had any effect on their deliberations, but it was interesting that they chose identical frequencies and other characteristics.

Over 31 possible transmitting sites were considered. Eventually, eight locations were established as permanent transmitting stations. The Bratland, Norway station (near the Arctic Circle) and the Haku Valley station on Oahu, Hawaii, originally experimental stations, were among the first in the system. In 1968, the U.S. Navy authorized full scale implementation of the Omega System based on the OIC report. Responsibility for the operation was transferred from the U.S. Navy to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1971, under the terms of title 14, USC 82. The Coast Guard created a new command, the Omega Navigation System Operations Detail (ONSOD) to operate the system. ONSOD control of the synchronization of the system was perfected while the Navy Project Office finished the task of constructing the stations. As construction of the final six stations proceeded through the 1970s, ONSOD assumed the duties of engineering maintenance for those stations as they were declared operational. Eventually, eight permanent stations located in Bratland, Norway; Paynesville, Liberia; Kaneohe, Hawaii, US; La Moure, North Dakota, US; Plaine Chabrier, La Reunion, France (Indian Ocean); Golfo Nuevo, Chubut, Argentina; Woodside, Victoria, Australia; and Shushi-Wan, Tsushima Island, Japan were completed.

Separate bilateral agreements were negotiated between the U.S. and the six partner nations. ONSOD, later the Omega Navigation System Center (ONCEN), was named the Operational Commander (OPCON) with each partner nation maintaining responsibility for administrative control (ADCON). The U.S. owned and maintained all the Omega related equipment at each station. The host nation provided personnel, funding and non-Omega support for the station. Partner nation crews came from military and civilian sources. The Argentine and French stations were crewed by both military and civilian members of the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency, while the Australian station were staffed by civilian employees of the Maritime Safety Agency (equivalents of the U.S. Coast Guard); and the Liberian and Norwegian stations were crewed by civilian government employees. It took a tremendous effort, on the part of Team Coast Guard, to provide the system with world class support. The organizations involved in this unique international system included Commandant (G-OPN-3); CG Navigation Center (NAVCEN), the current OPCON; Engineering Logistics Center (ELC) Baltimore; Electronics Engineering Center (EECEN); Civil Engineering Unit (CEU) Cleveland; Civil Engineering Unit (CEU) Honolulu; CG Finance Center (FMCEM), Chesapeake, VA; the Eighth Coast Guard District, New Orleans, LA; and the Fourteenth Coast Guard District, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Before OMEGA could even be inaugurated, it invoked litigation against the United States government as the Decca Navigator Company of London, England had proposed a very similar system many years earlier and called it DELRAC. In 1962, what eventually became the OMEGA system appeared in a U.S. proposal to International Civil Aviation Organization using the title DELRAC/OMEGA although it later defaulted to plain OMEGA. The technical similarity between OMEGA and DELRAC was obvious and there was considerable bad feeling at Decca that they had not received due recognition of their much earlier efforts. Decca eventually sued the U.S. Government in 1976 for infringement of DELRAC patents and were awarded $44,000,000 damages. The U.S. never claimed OMEGA was a military navaid in the court case. By then, they didnt really need it for either aircraft or submarines, having developed inertial navigation systems. It had only implemented OMEGA world-wide by claiming it was a civilian navaid.

 It

was not the first time Decca has sued the U.S. Government over a navaid they had done so in 1967 over Loran-C, and won the case there as well. Unfortunately for Decca, the Americans claimed the Loran-C was a military system necessary for national security and did not have to pay up even though found guilty by a court law. Its strange that the same argument was not raised in the case of OMEGA.

Omega achieved full eight station implementation in 1983 and was used by several airlines flying long range routes over water as well as by military forces. Towards the end of its service life, the Omega system was upgraded with new timing and control equipment; Paynesville, Liberia being the last station to be upgraded in the Spring of 1996. Since the original equipment had been designed in the 1960s, certain critical components had become obsolete and could no longer be procured for replacement purposes. With an initial termination date set for the year 2005 or longer this upgrade.

John (Jack) A. Pierce, who retired from a position as a senior research fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts was awarded the Medal for Engineering Excellence in 1990 for the design, teaching and advocacy of radio propagation, navigation and timing which led to the development of Loran, Loran C and Omega. In 1941, Pierce began working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Radiation Laboratory which was testing the United States first hyperbolic radio aid to navigation called Loran. It inaugurated in October 1942. Later work produced Loran C which operated at a lower frequency of 100 kHz. After World War II, he was appointed senior research fellow in applied physics at Harvard and from 1950 to 1974 did work on low frequency navigation aids that lead to Omega.

 Among

his many awards are a 1948 Presidential Certificate of Merit and the 1953 Morris Liebmann Prize of the Institute of Radio Engineers. He earned a BA in physics from Harvard while an assistant at the Universitys Cruft Laboratory. Program had to be executed to ensure that the system continued full and reliable operation in the short term.

Herbert Rideout, and engineer who worked on the development of long range radio navigation and communications at Pickard & Burns, recalls some of the early research. Jack Pierce worked at Cruft Laboratory, Harvard University. Working for the university was considered prestigious, however the wages paid were low, so engineers associated with the radio navigation program usually worked for commercial companies who paid prevailing wages. One of those companies was Pickard & Burns, Needham MA which was under contract with the US Navy. We were closely associated with Jack and were in constant daily contact. We are able to accomplish whatever Cruft Laboratory could not do such as designing and fabricating prototype equipment. (Draco equipment, described further in this passage, fell in this class). My direct boss at Pickard & Burns was Dr. Richard H. Woodward, a graduate of Harvard and during WWII, worked along side Jack Pierce at the M.I.T. Radiation Laboratory developing Loran. Richard was one of the authors of Loran Volume 4 of the Radiation Laboratory Series. Pickard & Burns was a small company, having about 20 engineers on staff but we did other work besides radio navigation. As an engineer, I occasionally skipped around to other jobs, however Jack liked me and when I went on my trip abroad the vessel USS Compass Island to the Mediterranean, he said I brought back the best and most accurate data he had ever received, so from then on I belonged to Jack. The Compass Island was a US Navy research vessel stationed at the Navy Yard in New York City.

When the Compass Island departed New York, she was packed several different navigation systems which were being evaluated by the US Navy. At that time, the Navy was interested in testing out any navigation system that might be suitable for submarines. One of them, from Cornell University, measured gravity. Since the force of gravity is never the same in any two places on earth, measuring it would permit position to be determined. A second system, SINS (Ships Inertial Navigation System) was North American Aviations inertial navigation system. The third system from Reeves Kodak used some type of celestial based system to fix position. Lastly, there was Draco, which was intended to be a worldwide VLF hyperbolic radio navigation system. It was the brain child of John Pierce with Pickard & Burns supporting him. That system was named Draco after the constellation Draco but I do not know who gave it that name.

 During

the voyage, a formal Draco test program was followed which would investigate these specific areas:
Field intensity and noise in the VLF spectrum. Draco navigation capability. Reception of communication signals with a Draco

receiver having a 100 cycle bandwidth. Reception of communication signals with a Draco receiver having a special 20 cycle filter. Reception of special phase shift keyed signals with a Draco receiver.

Two AN/URM-6 (14 kHz 250 kHz) field intensity meters, one narrow bandwidth filter for the Draco receiver-indicator, and three magnetic tape recorders had been installed on the Compass Island during the first week in March 1958. An electronic antenna coupler was also installed so two URM-6 units could be attached to the ships VLF whip antenna. Both of the field intensity meters were calibrated by the Dinger shield injection method and the effective height of the antenna was determined. Once all the equipment was installed and pretested, a preliminary cruise was scheduled from March 8 to 11, to check the full operation of the gear. During this trip it was found that the noise in the antenna coupler was too high so the URM-6 equipment was connected directly to the whip antenna thus by passing the antenna coupler.

Once everything was operating to expectations, the ship departed New York City on 13 March and reached the Mediterranean on 23 March taking up position at 17 degrees East longitude. After cruising for 18 days (including a 3 day stopover at Palma, Spain) and taking measurements, it was time to depart. On the 9th of April the Compass Island left the Med returning to New York on April 17. The tests were very promising. Field intensity and Draco measurements were recorded using three VLF transmitter stations; NSS (15.5 kHz) at Annapolis, Maryland; NLK (18.6 kHz) at Jim Creek, Washington; and GBZ (19.6 kHz) at Criggion, Wales.

Besides being designed for hyperbolic navigation, Draco was being proposed for use as a secret, one-way communications system for submarines. It worked like this: VLF transmitters NLK at Jim Creek, Washington State, and NSS Annapolis, MD had their individual frequencies stabilized to very accurate levels below that of one cycle. To and astute observer it seemed they drifted at a random rate. The drift was introduced by using mechanical cams which drove servo motors which in turn introduced a precise known drift rate of less than one cycle. At the receiving end, Draco consisted of rack mounted equipment comprising of two receivers, a phase comparator and a stabilized frequency reference all designed by Pickard & Burns. Received VLF signals from NLK and NSS were then fed into the phase comparator and in turn compared to a highly accurate oscillator. The difference or output representing the drift rate of the VLF transmitted signals was represented by a voltage the faster the drift the larger the voltage. The output voltage drove servo motors in a mechanical device that in turn drove other servos which gave a DC output voltage corresponding to the drift rate. This voltage was used to drive Esterline Angus chart recorders.

Uncorrected, the line on the chart would go from left to right representing the drift but when mechanical cams were installed which were the reverse of those in the transmitter we would see a straight line down the center representing zero phase shift in the transmitted signal. At predetermined times we would have our engineers at the transmitting sites introduce different drift rates and these would show up at our receive end as a lower or higher chart reading. It was these deviations that were proposed for communications since submarines could receive these signals without surfacing. In one test, the phase of the signals from Jim Creek were shifted 3 times during a period of 7 minutes to produce the letter S in Morse code. These special transmissions were repeated once an hour for several days during the tests in the Med. Since the Draco equipment responds to shifts of phase, it was easy to read the strip of recordings produced by the special transmissions.

Before leaving on the trip I asked Pierce how often how wanted the equipment calibrated and he said every 4 hours around the clock for the whole six week trip. This became somewhat complicated since it took two hours to calibrate everything. Aboard ship, I shared a cabin with one of the officers and my getting out of bed every two hours in the night did upset him a bit but even worse for me. Because I was a civilian, I was considered the junior officer and had to sleep in the upper bunk which had a ventilating duct four inches above my head. It was then that I discovered whenever I turned over during the night I automatically lifted my head five inches!

After the trip, the Cornell and Reeves-Kodak systems were never to be seen again. In August 1958, Jack Pierce and Dick Woodward prepared a technical report on the operation of the Draco equipment. The measurements showed that the average field intensity of the signals from station NLK at Jim Creek in Washington varied from roughly 30 micro volts per meter during the day to 100 to 200 micro volts per meter at night as observed in the Western Mediterranean Sea at a range of about 6,000 nautical miles.

The corresponding signal from the station NSS at Annapolis, Maryland, varied from 300 micro volts per meter during the day to nearly 1,000 micro volts per meter at night in the same area at a range of about 5,000 nautical miles. These observations are in reasonable agreement with predictions based on the Pierce empirical formula for VLF propagation. But the observed signals from Jim Creek were several decibels weaker than the predictions. Presumably the losses were at caused at reflection points where the ground had poor conductivity.

The average noise level in the Western Mediterranean Sea varied from about 30 micro volts per meter at 0800 hours GMT to about 90 micro volts per meter at 1500 hours GMT. These observations were made in the springtime and, of course, higher values would be expected during the winter. It was difficult to analyze some of the results obtained from the Draco navigation equipment because station NSS was out of sync most of the time. However, the errors in the navigators fixes were comparable with the errors in the Draco system. The consistency of the Draco observations indicates that the Draco errors rarely exceeded a mile or two in the Mediterranean area. Comparison of the qualities of signals from NLK and NSS as received with the Draco and the Model AN/SRR11 receivers indicated that the Draco receiver was equivalent in performance to the latter.

It was therefore concluded that the Draco equipment could be used for communication as well as navigation. No significant improvement in performance was obtained by the introduction of a 20-cycle filter in the Draco receiver. The Draco strip chart recordings of special phase-shift keyed transmissions from Jim Creek demonstrated that simple messages could be transmitted reliably at a range of at least 6,000 nautical miles. Presumably such simple messages could be recorded and read at the same range (6,000 nautical miles) and depth (20 feet) under the sea water as can Draco signals.

 After

I completed my work on the Draco project, I began to realize my interests werent in the field of radio navigation so in 1959 I came west to work for the North American Aviation. Soon I designed some equipment for the McDonald F-4 aircraft which made the company a great deal of money so I remained with them as a Project Manager. Jack Pierce retired to Weare, NH and died there in 1996 at the age of 88. As of 2005, Richard Woodward is living in Cape Cod, MA..

Although Draco never became a radio navigation system in its own right, measurements made during its development may have been applied to Omega or into other submarine communication systems. Typically these are taken in relation to fixed objects, e.g. prominent landmarks. By measuring the angle of two such locations, the position of the navigator can be determined. Alternatively, one can measure the angle and distance to a single object, or the distance to two objects.

The introduction of radio systems during the 20th century dramatically increased the distances over which measurements could be taken. Such a system also demanded much greater accuracies in the measurements an error of one degree in angle might be acceptable when taking a fix on a lighthouse a few miles away, but would be of limited use when used on a radio station 300 miles (480 km) away. A variety of methods were developed to take fixes with relatively small angle inaccuracies, but even these where generally useful only for short-range systems.

The same electronics that made basic radio systems work, introduced the possibility of making very accurate time delay measurements. This enabled accurate measurement of the delay between the transmission and reception of the signal. The delay measurement could be used to determine the distance between the two transmitters. The problem was to know when the transmission was initiated. With radar, this was simple, as the transmitter and receiver are at the same location. Measuring the delay between sending the signal and receiving the echo allowed accurate range measurement.

For other uses, air navigation for instance, the receiver would have to know the precise time the signal was transmitted. This was not generally possible using electronics of the day. Instead, two stations were synchronized by using one of the two transmitted signals as the trigger for the second signal. By comparing the measured delay between the two signals, and comparing that with the known delay, the aircrafts position was revealed to lie along a curved line in space. By making two such measurements against widely separated locations, the resulting lines would overlap in two locations. These locations were normally far enough apart to allow conventional navigation systems, like dead reckoning, to eliminate the incorrect position solution.

 The

first of these hyperbolic navigation systems was the UKs Gee and Decca, followed by the US LORAN and LORAN-C systems. LORAN-C offered accurate navigation at distances over 1,000 kilometers, and by locating chains of stations around the world, they offered moderately widespread coverage.

 Key

to the operation of the hyperbolic system was the use of one transmitter to broadcast the master signal, which was used by the secondaries as their trigger. This limited the maximum range over which the system could operate. For very short ranges, tens of kilometers, the trigger signal could be carried by wires. Over long distances, over-the-air signaling was more practical, but for the frequencies being used, these were limited to line-of-sight.

Very long distance radio signaling is possible, using longwave techniques (low frequencies), which enables a planet-wide hyperbolic system. However, at those ranges, radio signals do not travel in straight lines, but reflect off various regions above the Earth, known collectively as the ionosphere. At medium frequencies, this appears to bend or refract the signal beyond the horizon. At lower frequencies, (VLF / ELF), the accepted model is that of a ducted waveguide, where the lower boundary is the Earths solid or liquid surface, and the upper boundary is the time/space/density-varying ionosphere. This makes possible many paths between the transmitter and receiver which complicate the process of tracking the master pulse. Additionally, low frequencies make it difficult to accurately rebuild an accurate clock signal from the master transmitter signal. The problem was solved with the introduction of the atomic clock in the 1950s, which became commercially available in portable form by the 1960s. Depending upon type, e.g. rubidium, cesium, hydrogen, the clocks had an accuracy on the order of 1 part in 1010 to better than 1 part in 1012 or a drift about 1 second in 30 million years. This is more accurate than the timing system by the master/secondary stations. The master/secondary system was no longer needed; each station was triggered by a local atomic clock.

 By

this time the LORAN-C and Decca Navigator systems were dominant in the medium-range roles, and short-range was well served by VOR and DME. The expense of the clocks, lack of need, and the limited accuracy of a long wave system eliminated the need for such a system for many roles.

 However,

the United States Navy had a distinct need for just such a system, as they were in the process of introducing the TRANSIT satellite navigation system. TRANSIT was designed to allow measurements of location at any point on the planet, with enough accuracy to act as a reference for an inertial navigation system (INS). Periodic fixes re-set the INS, which could then be used for navigation over longer periods of time and distances.

TRANSIT had the distinct disadvantage that it generated two possible locations for any given measurements, locations that were close enough together that traditional navigation methods were not accurate to determine which of the two was the actual location (in contrast to Gee or LORAN). Other radio navigation systems offered enough accuracy to resolve the fix, but did not have global scope of TRANSIT. This produced the need for a new system with global coverage and accuracy on the order of a few kilometers. The combination of TRANSIT and the new Omega produced a highly accurate global navigation system.

The Kaneohe Omega Transmitter, 1987

Omega was approved for development in 1968 with only eight transmitters and the ability to achieve four mile (6 km) accuracy when fixing a position. Each Omega station transmitted a sequence of three very low frequency (VLF) signals (10.2 kHz, 13.6 kHz, 11.333 kHz in that order) plus a fourth frequency which was a unique to each of the eight stations. The duration of each pulse (ranging from 0.9 to 1.2 seconds, with 0.2 second blank intervals between each pulse) differed in a fixed pattern, and repeated every ten seconds; the 10-second pattern was common to all 8 stations and synchronized with the carrier phase angle, which itself was synchronized with the local master atomic clock. The pulses within each 10-second group were identified by the first 8 letters of the alphabet within Omega publications of the time.

The envelope of the individual pulses could be used to establish a receivers internal timing within the 10-second pattern. However, it was the phase of the received signals within each pulse that was used to determine the transit time from transmitter to receiver. Using hyperbolic geometry and radio navigation principles, a position fix with accuracy on the order of 5-10 kilometers (3.1-6.2 mi) was realizable over the entire globe at any time of the day. Omega employed hyperbolic radio navigation techniques and the chain operated in the VLF portion of the spectrum between 10 to 14 kHz. Near the end of its service life of 26 years, Omega evolved into a system used primarily by the civil community. By receiving signals from three stations, an Omega receiver could locate a position within 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) using the principle of phase comparison of signals.

Omega stations used very extensive antennas to transmit their extremely low frequencies. This is because wavelength is inversely proportional to frequency (wavelength = 300,000,000 / frequency), and the transmitter efficiency is severely degraded if the length of the antenna is shorter than wavelength. They used grounded of insulated guyed masts with umbrella antennas, or wirespans across both valleys and fjords. Some Omega antennas were the tallest constructions on the continent where they stood or still stand.

Omega Tower Paynesville, Liberia

 When

six of the eight station chain became operational in 1971, day-to-day operations were managed by the United States Coast Guard in partnership with Argentina, Norway, Liberia, and France. The Japanese and Australian stations became operational several years later. Coast Guard personnel operated two US stations: one in La Moure, North Dakota and the other in Kaneohe, Hawaii on the island of Oahu.

 Due

to the success of the Global Positioning System the use of Omega declined during the 1990s, to a point where the cost of operating Omega could no longer be justified. Omega was shut down permanently 30 September 1997. Several of the towers were soon demolished. Some stations, such as the La Moure station, are now used for submarine communications.

In 1976, the Decca Navigator Company of London sued the United States government over patent infringements, claiming that the Omega system was based on a proposed earlier Decca system known as DELRAC Decca Long Range Area Coverage that had been disclosed to the US in 1954. Decca cited original US documents showing the system was originally referred to as DELRAC/Omega. Decca won the case and was awarded $44,000,000 in damages. Decca had previously sued the US government for alleged patent infringements over the LORAN C system in 1976. Decca won its case, but as the navigation system was judged to be a military one, no damages were paid by the US.

Omega utilized CW (continuous wave) phase comparison of signal transmission from pairs of stations. The stations transmitted time-shared signals on four frequencies, in the following order: 10.2 kHz, 11.33 kHz, 13.6 kHz, and 11.05 kHz. During its life cycle, the system used quite a lot of frequencies at different times. For instance, 12.1, 12.0, 11.55, 13.1, 12.3, 12.9, 13.0 and 12.8 kHz were employed. 11.05 kHz was introduced in an attempt to enlarge the area of non-ambiguity. The difference frequency between this and 11.33333 kHz produces a lane width of no less than 328 miles. In addition to these common frequencies, each station transmitted a unique frequency to aid station identification.

The inherent accuracy of the OMEGA system was limited by the accuracy of the propagation corrections that were applied to the individual receiver readings. These corrections were in the form of predictions from tables which were applied to manual receivers or stored in memory and applied automatically in computerized receivers. The system was designed to provide a predictable accuracy of 2 to 4 nm which depended on location, station pairs used, time of day, and validity of the propagation correction.

 All

OMEGA signal patterns are transmitted starting at zero time (OMEGA Time) and are maintained at the exact starting time through atomic clocks at each transmitting site. All frequencies are phase locked to zero time. All frequencies cross zero phase with a positive slope at exactly 0000 OMEGA Time.

Initially OMEGA station transmissions were started at universal time. However, universal time is corrected for changes in the earths rate of rotation; these conditions, called leap seconds, are made periodically. Corrections to OMEGA Time to account for leap seconds are difficult because complex interrelationships between stations. Additionally, signals used during the time change present a synchronization problem. Consequently, OMEGA Time is maintained at a steady rate and is not updated. All OMEGA stations are timed and controlled by a cesium beam atomic clock which is accurate to 1 second in 3000 years. The over all accuracy is on the order of a few parts in 1012.

STATION TABLE

TRANSMISSION STATION 6625 N Normal 10 kW A Bratland, Norway Valley span 1308 E transmission 10 kW transmission. 0618 N B Paynesville, Liberia Grounded tower Modal interference 1040 W night. 2124 N Normal 10 kW C Kaneohe, Hawaii Valley span 15750 W transmission. 4621 N Normal 10 kW D La Moure, ND Insulated tower 9820 E transmission Plaine Chabrier, La 2058 S Normal 10 kW E Grounded Tower Reunion (Indian Ocean) 5517 E transmission Golfo Nuevo, Chalut 4303 S Normal 10 kW F Insulated Tower Argentina 6511 W transmission Came on line around Woodside, Victoria, 3829 S 1980. Trinidad G Australia. Temporarily In planning 14656 E transmission level was assumed by Trinidad 1 kW Shushi-Wan, Tsushima 3437 N Normal 10 kW H Insulated tower Island, Japan 12927 E transmission. STATION TABLE. Omega summary information was broadcast from WWV, Boulder Colorado at 16 minutes after each hour in 40 second duration.
STATION LETTER STATION LOCATION ANTENNA TYPE LAT/LONG

STATION TABLE. Omega summary information was broadcast from WWV, Boulder Colorado at 16 minutes after each hour in 40 second duration. The VLF range of 10-14 kHz was selected as the best range for OMEGA primarily because of:

1.

2. 3.

Presence of a wave guided mode to VLF signals which follows the earths curvature and provides signal detection over great distances with a relatively low (10 kW) power output. Excellent stability of VLF signals. Relatively wide distances between points where phase measurements would be the same (distances between points of equal phase measurements).

VLF propagation contains several different transmission modes: ground wave, sky waves, and wave guided wave. The wave guide effect occurs when a wave passes through a cavity which reflects the wave and confines it to the enclosed space within the cavity. An effect similar to the wave guide effect occurs when very low frequency transmissions travel over earths surface. Signals in the 10-14 kHz range behave as though propagated through a waveguide of concentric spheres. In this case, the spheres are the earth and the ionosphere.

The stability of an OMEGA signal is the primary reason these waves are desirable for navigation. Stability of a VLF OMEGA signal indicates the wave propagates with similar characteristics, without distortion at most any distance from the transmitting station as long as it is receivable. This stability is confirmed through monitoring of OMEGA VLF signals at various earth locations. Monitoring has also shown changes in exact phase measurement of VLF signals. Actual measurement at a given time can be predicted with great accuracy even though exact phase measurements differ greatly day to night, season to season.

Wave guided signals travel great distances from the station with almost unlimited range over water; over land they attenuate at a greater rate. The greatest loss of signal occurs over the ice cap. A wave propagated in one direction over water (the long way around the world) could be received while a direct signal from the station might not be received due to signal attenuation over an ice cap. When this occurs the predicted position fix accuracy becomes extremely low and the signals should be considered invalid.

 Also,

when the receiver is a great distance from the transmitters, signals may be received from both directions, resulting in a combined signal phase shifted an unknown amount. Therefore, use of OMEGA signals is not recommended when the receiver is more than 8000 NM (great circle distance) from the transmitting stations.

The earth is not a perfect waveguide. The imperfect walls of the earth ionosphere waveguide affect signals in many ways. Phase velocities in the VLF range are primarily dependent upon the condition of this waveguide through which they are propagated. The earths waveguide condition is a function of the shape and height of the ionosphere which is in turn a function of the position of the sun and the season of the year. As a consequence of these and other factors, there are eight (8) basic error sources which contribute in varying degrees to the overall OMEGA system accuracy. Two out of 8 error sources are described below. The other six were missing in the source material.

System Errors

 The

first error source of concern is called the diurnal effect. It is principally associated with the suns position since its radiation adjusts the height and shape of the ionosphere. During daylight hours, the ionization layer will lower about 70 km, thereby increasing the phase velocity. This effect will also be seasonal and, of course, nonlinear during transition.

long propagation path may be either entirely sunlit (day), entirely dark (night), or experiencing mixed illumination (transition). For long paths, night may be only a few hours; for Arctic paths during the summer months there may be no night at all.

 Propagation

tends to be most stable during the day although conditions do vary slowly. At night conditions tend to be constant but less stable than during the day. Transition periods are of intermediate stability and present complications in prediction and application.

System Errors

 The

second source of error is ground conductivity. Extreme variations in phase velocities are detectable between sea water, representing low attenuation, and ice which is high in attenuation and hence slows the phase velocities. Water is a near perfect conductor in the VLF spectrum and does not greatly affect the signal.

Propagation correction tables and formulas were based on theoretical models calibrated from worldwide monitor data taken over long periods. A number of permanent monitors were maintained to assess the system accuracy on a long term basis. The specific accuracy attained depended on the type of equipment used as well as the time of day and the location of the user. In most cases, the accuracies attained were consistent with the 2 to 4 nm stated in the system design goal. There were a few cases where much better accuracy was reported. A validation program conducted by the USCG indicated that the OMEGA system met its design goal.

 OMEGA

had an availability of greater than 99 percent year for each station and 95 percent for three stations. The annual system availability was greater than 97 percent which included scheduled off air time. Scheduled off air periods were announced up to 30 days before the off air activity was to occur.

 The

system provided independent position fixes once every ten seconds and was capable of two or more lines of position (LOPs) fix. Due to the fact that Omega antennas were towers around 1,200 feet tall, that made the system very expensive to install.

With the Global Positioning System (GPS) being declared fully operational, the use of OMEGA had dwindled to a point where continued operation was not economically justified. The 1994 edition of the United States Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP), which delineates policies and plans for federally provided radio navigation services, stated the U.S. expects to continue OMEGA operations until September 30, 1997, to accommodate the transition of civil aviation users to GPS. Continued operation after that date will depend upon validating requirements for OMEGA that cannot be met by GPS or another system. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) completed its review of Omega navigation requirements for the U.S. aviation industry and notified the U.S. Coast Guard that most users will complete their conversion to GPS technology by September 1997. OMEGA was shut down precisely at 0300Z on September 30, 1997 the end of another era. To VLF experimenters, the very high power of OMEGA signals were both a blessing and a curse; a blessing in that they provided convenient test signals in the 9.5 to 14 kHz range, and a curse in that they tended to interfere with the reception of natural radio phenomena such as whistlers and dawn chorus.

Besides affecting users, the closure of Omega has a small impact on tourism. Because of their prominent antennas and interesting mission, many Omega stations were recognized in their local areas as major tourist attractions, including official listings and pictures in area tourist brochures. Omega station North Dakota was located in the town of La Moure, with a population of less than 1,000. In this small town is located the Omega Motel, the Omega Plaza, and the Omega Room at one of the restaurants. After Omega ceased, the USN took over the site from the US Coast Guard and continued VLF communications under the name of Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Atlantic (NCTAMSLANT). The mission statement of the new station is: To manage, operate, and maintain those facilities, systems, equipment, and devices necessary to provide requisite communications and information system support for the command, operational control and administration of the naval establishment, and the fixed submarine broadcast system; to test and evaluate new Very Low Frequency (VLF) broadcast technology and minimize downtime of operational sites during VLF system upgrades and major transmitter and antenna maintenance. The people of La Moure will not soon forget the Omega system as the 1200 foot tower still looms in the western horizon and a number of retired Coast Guardsmen now reside in La Moure.

 Omega

Station Norway had a prominent sign along the road near the helix building proclaiming their antenna as the longest antenna span in Europe. The Japan tower was the highest structure in Japan, and the Argentina and Liberia towers were the tallest structures in their entire continents. Australia registered 10,000 visitors per year to its station.