Re: A Group of Towers in Acton

[Brian Vita <brian_vita@cssinc.com>]

My interpretation of the most recent regs are that the NDB (non-directional 
beacon for you non-pilots) currency requirements are optional given that 
they are phasing out the beacons.  I think that it comes down to if the 
plane has an ADF receiver and there's an NDB approach nearby, the examiner 
can test for it.  If you don't have one, its not a requirement.  Gives me a 
good reason to have a bunch of "INOPERATIVE" Post-it notes in my pocket...

For you non-aviators out there, an NDB is a non-directional beacon that 
mindlessly spits out a Morse code identifier 24/7.  The beacons are AM and 
just below the normal broadcast band on the dial.  It is an old form of 
navigation that is in the process of being phased out by the FAA.  Aircraft 
equipped with an ADF would tune in the beacon and identify it from the 
Morse code.  The needle would give an indication as to the position of the 
NDB relative to the aircraft.  Most ADF receivers were equipped to receive 
signals well into the AM broadcast band so that, in theory, you could tune 
into 680 and find the WRKO towers...  The most common usage of these things 
of late seemed to be to listen to the game while flying the aircraft. (I 
had a flight instructor who explained this to me).

There used to be tons of these beacons around but they are very quickly 
going silent.  The FAA announced that they are shutting off all vacuum tube 
units this year and relocating some of the transistorized units to critical 
locations that had tube units.  As far as listening goes, they are a rather 
dull show... kind of like WTKK ;-)

Some local ones for you:

Bedford:  251Khz SKR
         332Khz - BE (Outer marker for instrument approach RWY 11

Beverly 269Khz TOF (Topsfield)

Boston 375 BO
         382 LQ (Lyndy)

If you want more, let me know.  I'll dig up the approach plates.

As a side note (off subject), let it not be said that the FAA doesn't have 
a sense of humor.  For the sake of convenience, the FAA has created named 
waypoints that are used to report your position.  For example, if you are 
near the TOF NDB just outside of Beverly, there is a waypoint called 
"TAITS"  If you look at the named waypoints that you would use for certain 
approaches into Pease (Portsmouth) they are called:
ITAWT
ITAWA
PUDYE
TTATT

Read them quickly out loud. I don't know how that one slipped by them ;-)

Brian

At 09:48 PM 2/16/00 -0500, Robert Smith wrote:


>"R.L. Caron" wrote:
>
> >Okay, but, I've shot the NDB approach into MHT a number of times, the 
> DRY NDB is
>in Londonderry, NH, not near Route 2 in Massachusetts.  I'm not sure what 
>those
>towers are, but they sure aren't the DRY NDB.  As for the NDB approach not 
>being
>a current skill--I sure wish you would explain that to the last guy who 
>gave me
>a  BFR and IFR proficiency exam.
>
>Bob Smith

-- Brian T. Vita, President
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