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Loran to GPS Conversion

Posted: December 30th, 2009, 6:27 pm
by Scoop Sea
Sorry if this topic has been hashed out before, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any websites, etc. that allow for the conversion of Loran numbers to GPS coordinates? If so, has anybody had any success with these conversions, i.e. were they pretty accurate, etc? Any intel, advice, would be appreciated.

My pops just gave me his "little black book of fishing numbers" and they are all in Loran. I don't run a Loran on my boat, so my options are somewhat limited currently.

I'm glad to have the numbers, but hate to see my dad parting with his fishing stuff. He gave me a couple of rods, including his favorite this past week as well. It looks like the era of him going off-shore is coming to an end. I sure nuff hate to see that.

In advance, thanks.

Re: Loran to GPS Conversion

Posted: December 30th, 2009, 6:54 pm
by Jumptrout51
If you have a garmin gps you can access the loran menu and enter your numbers. You can then go to the menu and set up for gps ,the numbers will convert.

Re: Loran to GPS Conversion

Posted: December 30th, 2009, 6:57 pm
by tin can
There are free downloads out there that supposedly convert Loran to GPS. A good friend of mine researched this extensively a few years back. What we learned is even though Loran is repeatable, it isn't the same as GPS. GPS will give you a true reading regardless of where you are. Loran is a radio signal and is affected by terrain, trees, structures, and any other fixed obstacle the radio signal has to work around. To recover the Loran numbers he had, my friend resorted to buying a Loran. We navigated to his numbers then marked them with his GPS. We tried several pieces of conversion software. What we found was anywhere from 100 feet to 2500 feet error in the conversion, depending on where we were. There may be something better out there now, but we weren't very successful.

If you Google Loran to GPS conversion you'll come up with several pieces of software and enough reading to keep you busy for several days.

Good luck.

Re: Loran to GPS Conversion

Posted: December 31st, 2009, 9:33 am
by groupertherapy
I've got an algorithum that converts fairly accurately. Did 100's of lorans for a guy but most of them are out of reach with my boat. The ones tested are out of C'belle and have caught fish on all of them.

Will work for numbers.