UrsaNav, Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire the assets of Loran-C pioneer Megapulse, Inc., of Bedford, Massachusetts, with the transaction expected to close this quarter.
Megapulse’s general area of business is low-frequency (LF)
radionavigation, position-fIxing, orientation, and time transfer
systems, with primary product and service lines in Loran and enhanced
Loran (eLoran). Since the 1970s, all Loran transmitter systems installed
were of Megapulse design.
UrsaNav, Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire the assets of Loran-C pioneer Megapulse, Inc., of Bedford, Massachusetts, with the transaction expected to close this quarter.
Megapulse’s general area of business is low-frequency (LF)
radionavigation, position-fIxing, orientation, and time transfer
systems, with primary product and service lines in Loran and enhanced
Loran (eLoran). Since the 1970s, all Loran transmitter systems installed
were of Megapulse design.
UrsaNav, headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, offers its own
multi-mode LF receivers and command and control equipment. Additionally,
UrsaNav offers Nautel’s next-generation, multi-mode LF transmitters and
Symmetricom’s Loran and eLoran timing and frequency products, both
product lines provided under exclusive, worldwide agreements.
The discontinuance by the United States of Loran transmissions in 2010 clearly complicated Megapulse’s business prospects.
Nonetheless, advocates for eLoran continue to hope that the system will
again be considered as a backup for GPS and other GNSS systems. The
United Kingdom is operating eLoran transmitters, and UrsaNav has been testing eLoran and other LF communcations as part of a
U.S. Coast Guard contract to explore improved methods for time transfer.
Under license from Reelektronika, a Netherlands company, Megapulse
builds an integrated receiver that incorporates eLoran receiver and GPS
and H-field antennas. Commercially, the eLoran is distributed by Si-Tex
Marine Electronics.
Erik Johannessen, Megapulse’s president, will join UrsaNav as the
vice-president of business development for UrsaNav’s Low Frequency
Business Unit, and will report to UrsaNav’s President & CEO, Mr.
Charles Schue. Megapulse operations staff will also transfer to the LF
Business Unit.
UrsaNav’s LF Business Unit provides Loran-C, eLoran, Chayka, eChayka,
and related high-power/LF/ground wave solutions worldwide. For the
immediate future, the LF Business Unit will have operations in the
Washington, D.C., metropolitan area (Leesburg, Virginia) as well as
Boston, Massachusetts.
According to Schue, this acquisition positions UrsaNav to support
present owners of legacy Megapulse technology while providing those
owners a path for system and technology upgrades to more advanced
technologies.
