[inforoots] Loran C navigation receiver (Was: laptops)

[Barrie Robinson]

John,

What a shame you did not call me !!  I was with Canadian Marconi who for 
years beat Litton, GE & all others with their doppler navigation systems 
developed and manufactured in Montreal.  I was seconded from Marconi UK to 
see what they could do in the computer market.  To my amazement I found 
they had unique multi-layer board and integrated circuit technologies 
.....and they had no idea how advanced they were and just used it for these 
narrow-visioned military tenders.  I attempted to make computers using 
these advanced technologies using the Elliott and Marconi instruction sets 
- thus the massive amount of software for these machines.  The proposal was 
turned down as the VPs did not understand the concept of using the same 
instruction set.   Later a tear-away in the development lab made an HP look 
alike using these technologies (it was small, cheap and worked like a 
charm) but the VPs STILL said it could not be done.



At 11:22 AM 2/20/06 -0800, John C Green Jr wrote:
>=======================================
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>At 09:15 AM 2/20/06, "George Trimble" <georgetrimble at ieee.org> wrote:
>
>>I have a Radio Shack PC 100 Portable Computer that I bought sometime in the
>>early1980s. There were "luggable" computers around but I wouldn't consider
>>anything that heavy as portable. In fact, anything over 6 pounds was out 
>>as far as
>>I was concerned. At 3lb. 13oz. it was great to carry.
>
>In 1971 Litcom, a division of Litton Industries got a
>US Army contract to build a < 6 pound man carryable
>Loran C navigation receiver (not counting battery which
>was a contract that went to a battery company).  We failed
>as had the two previous companies that attempted to
>fulfill the contract.
>
>To have a chance we needed a couple of custom hybrid
>circuits.  But none of the few companies capable of
>making hybrids would answer the phone.  I'll leave some
>spoiler space so you can guess why before the answer is
>revealed.
>s
>p
>o
>i
>l
>e
>r
>
>b
>e
>l
>o
>w
>
>s
>p
>o
>i
>l
>e
>r
>
>b
>e
>l
>o
>w
>
>Every company capable of building the hybrids we needed
>was working on a digital watch design and wanted none of
>the critical resources that were applied to that design
>to be diverted to any other project.
>
>Regards,
>John Green
>
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Regards

Barrie Robinson
barrie at look.ca