Major changes in the maritime World.

The last month or so has been very crazy with changes. Here are several things you should be aware of.

1. The U.S. Coast Guard will terminate the transmission of all U.S. LORAN-C signals effective 2000Z 08 Feb 2010. At that time, the U.S. LORAN-C signal will be unusable and permanently discontinued. This termination does not affect U.S. participation in the Russian American or Canadian LORAN-C chains. U.S. participation in these chains will continue in accordance with international agreements.

You may view the estimated remaining LORAN-C signal coverage areas of these international chains in Appendix B, pages B-6 through B-8 of the Specification of the LORAN-C Transmitted Signal, COMDTINST M16562.4A.

The Coast Guard strongly urges mariners currently using LORAN-C for navigation to shift to a GPS navigation system and become familiar with its operation as soon as possible. Mariners will not be able to rely upon LORAN-C for navigation as of Feb. 8, 2010.

(2) New Physcial Form for the NMC Any mariner who wishes to renew or get a license must use teh new nine page form. It ask for far more detail information including body mass index. I suggest you go the the NMC site and down load the form to get a better feel for these changes.

(3) Major rule changes coming soon. These rules will impact mariners, the types of license, where you can go etc. go to http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#docketDetail?R=USCG-2004-17914

Please comment or you may find out your license is not what is use to be.

gary

Your Subscription: