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    Re: sextant without paper charts
    From: Lu Abel
    Date: 2008 Oct 29, 21:53 -0700
    I guess I have to wonder why anyone would use HO229 these days when for about $15 you can buy a solar powered scientific calculator (so no batteries to go bad, mine claims it will work if there's enough light for me to see the display) and therefore not have to go through the error-prone task of a HO229 sight reduction when one can just solve the celestial triangle directly with a calculator.   Let's remember the history of HO229 -- it was produced more than half a century ago when computers were a novelty and one certainly didn't have one built into one's cellphone or PDA.  It's a solution appropriate to the technology available half a century ago (along with vacuum tube radios). 

    Sure, Scott, there were QMs who used 229; but as you state it was a while ago and I suspect these were the more senior people who weren't quite as comfortable with calculators and such as the younger bucks. 

    Jumping ahead to the 21st century, one thing that amazes me is the amount of technology employed by the troops in Iraq.  Not just warfighting stuff, but GPS navigation systems in vehicles and personal communications stuff.   The troops there have full Internet access and often use tools like Skype to talk to their families with full video.  That ain't WWII or Vietnam or even the first Iraq war...

    Lu Abel

    Scott Owen wrote:
    frankreed@HistoricalAtlas.net wrote:
      
    Scott wrote:
    "As to HO229, there is no paper copy requirement IF
    the ship is authorized for usage of DNC charts.  Not all ships and
    submarines are authorized for DNC usage yet.  In any event, the prudent
    Commanding Officer would probably carry a paper copy of HO229 and any
    Harbor chart that the ship is expected to call on during next expected
    voyage."
    
    I don't see the connection between carrying HO229 and DNC (digital nautical
    chart).
    
     -FER
        
    Frank,
    Not sure there IS a connection, but there are certain hardware and
    publication requirements in order for a ship to pass a navigation
    certification.  The publication requirement depends on whether or not
    the ship/submarine is authorized to use DNC for primary navigation.  I
    suspect this has to do with the computer/IT systems and integration of
    the GPS system installed in the ship.  As I understand it, if the
    ship/submarine is authorized to use DNC for primary navigation purposes,
    then all publications provided by NGA [including HO229] can also be
    carried in "electronic" pdf format with the exception of the Nautical
    Almanac [I know it comes from USNO] which still has to be carried in
    paper form.  If the ship is NOT authorized for DNC usage then there is a
    paper requirement for ALL charts and publications.  True you can do
    sight reductions with just the NA but all the USN ships I was ever on
    [granted a few years gone by] all carried a paper copy of HO229 and
    calculators so the QMs could take there pick when doing celestial
    navigation.
    
    --Scott
    
    
      

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