Nautel Announces On-Air Demonstration of Next Generation Enhanced LORAN Design

Innovative enhanced Loran (eLoran) transmiter design offers breakthrough space efficiency, power, reliability, affordability and modulation flexibility to support future eLoran system development.

May 15, 2008

Bangor, Maine – Nautel Inc. announced today that the company has demonstrated its new eLoran transmitter technology at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Loran Support Unit (LSU) in Wildwood, NJ. Nautel’s patent pending technology will be incorporated into a series of cost-effective, highly reliable and easily managed eLoran transmitters for deployment by U.S. providers and international organizations for position, navigation and timing system applications. These solutions will further Nautel’s legacy of industry-leading solid state navigation products.

Loran (Long Range Navigation) is a land-based radio navigation system that has been used for many years and provides position, navigation and timing (PNT) information to users in the coverage area. Recently the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that eLoran will be implemented as a land-based, independent back-up system for PNT systems in the event of GPS outage or disruption.

The technology being demonstrated is extremely easy to deploy and uses Class D amplification with Nautel’s patent pending regenerative antenna damping to achieve superior efficiency. This efficient operation means cooling requirements are dramatically reduced. In addition accurate pulse timing and flexible modulation schemes permit the support of advanced applications for Loran. Nautel’s eLoran transmission philosophy incorporates the reliability concepts used during Nautel’s more than 35 years of ground based navigation experience. Soft fail power amplifiers with a passive reserve ensure continuous operation. The company says this technology is designed for an extended life under normal operation.

“Nautel’s unique eLoran technology further demonstrates our commitment to providing the best solid state transmission products anywhere,” said Peter Conlon, Nautel President and CEO. “Our broadcast products recently picked up three awards for innovation at the world’s largest broadcasting convention, the National Association of Broadcasters, in April. We are proud of our engineers’ achievements in designing these revolutionary products, and we are committed to bringing useful, cost-effective solutions to the market for years to come.”

Nautel also announced Ursa Navigation Solutions, Inc. as the global distributor for Nautel Loran solutions. “We’re very excited by Nautel’s innovative and affordable Loran technology”, commented Chuck Schue, UrsaNav President & CEO and retired Coast Guard Manager for the United States Loran Recapitalization and Modernization Program. “While the world relies on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for navigation services, eLoran has time and again been acknowledged as the best fully independent backup system for position information. Nautel’s new Loran transmitter technology significantly decreases the cost of a system to mitigate the safety, security, or economic effects of a GNSS system outage or disruption”.

About Nautel

Nautel is a global leader in the design, manufacture, sales and support of high power Radio Frequency (“RF”) products for AM and FM broadcast, navigation, industrial and space-based applications. With a long history of creating highly innovative products, Nautel continues to lead the way in providing valuable new solutions for the digital radio broadcast revolution. Thousands of customers in more than 170 countries have discovered that Nautel delivers world class RF solutions – systems that meet stringent quality standards at its ISO-registered manufacturing facilities.

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For more information please contact:

Kirk Zwicker
Manager, Navigational Product Sales
+1 902 823 3900 ext. 140
+1 902 440 0511 (mobile)
[email protected]

Making Digital Radio Work.

www.nautel.com