Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 02, 2006 FBO #1529
SPECIAL NOTICE

59 -- Receivers Loran

Notice Date

1/31/2006
 

Notice Type

Special Notice
 

NAICS

335999 — All Other Miscellaneous Electrical Equipment and Component Manufacturing
 

Contracting Office

DHS - Direct Reports, United States Coast Guard (USCG), Commanding Officer (fcp), U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, Administration Building Room 212A, Cape May, NJ, 08204-5092
 

ZIP Code

08204-5092
 

Solicitation Number

Reference-Number-21-06-RCVR-Wski
 

Response Due

2/28/2006
 

Archive Date

3/15/2006
 

Description

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION PURSUANT TO FAR 15.201(e) INTRODUCTION The U. S. Coast Guard is developing requirements for a Loran receiver to be used as a component of the Command and Control (C2) system for the U.S. Loran system. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather information to assist the U. S. Coast Guard in formulating functional requirements, and identify qualified vendors who are able to meet our requirements. The U. S. Coast Guard is open to alternative ideas. Respondents are encouraged to provide information about alternatives that can help the U. S. Coast Guard better define its requirements and obtain a solution that meets its needs. BACKGROUND LORAN-C was originally developed to provide radio navigation service for U.S. coastal waters and was later expanded to include complete coverage of the continental U.S. as well as most of Alaska. Twenty-four U.S. LORAN-C stations work in partnership with Canadian and Russian stations to provide coverage in Canadian waters and in the Bering Sea. LORAN-C provides better than 0.25 nautical mile absolute accuracy for suitably equipped users within the published areas. Advances in technology have allowed for greater automation and consolidation of LORAN-C operations. The existing system is being modernized to take advantage of such technology. More information on system modernization may be found at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/loran/modernization.htm . THE OPERATING STATUS OF LORAN-C LORAN-C provides coverage for maritime navigation in U.S. coastal areas. It provides position, navigation, and timing (PNT) services for both civil and military air, land and marine users. LORAN-C is approved as an en route supplemental flight navigation system for both Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) and Visual Flight Rule (VFR) operations. The LORAN-C system serves the 48 continental states, their coastal areas, and parts of Alaska. While the U. S. Government continues to evaluate the long-term need for the LORAN-C radio navigation system, it will operate the LORAN-C system in the short term. The U.S. Government will give users reasonable notice if it concludes that LORAN-C is not needed or is not cost effective, so that users will have the opportunity to transition to alternative navigation aids. PURPOSE OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION With this continued operation of the LORAN-C service, users will be able to realize additional benefits. Improvement of GPS time synchronization of the LORAN-C chains and the use of digital receivers may support improved accuracy and coverage of the service. LORAN-C will continue to provide a supplemental means of navigation. Current LORAN-C receivers do not support non-precision instrument approach or harbor entrance approach requirements. The receiver shall have the ability to use existing and future Additional Secondary Factors (ASF) tables. ASF terms correct for Loran propagation velocity changes over the ground, which result from variations in the Earth??s conductivity over the signal path. Additionally, the U. S. Coast Guard adopted the testing of different modulation techniques to further enhance the Loran-C system, establishing a test program for the enhancement of the Loran-C signal pertaining to availability, accuracy, integrity, and continuity. The proposed modulation scheme for this enhanced Loran-C system is known as 9th Pulse Modulation, and it may be reviewed at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/loran/9th-pulse-modulation-ldc.html . Voluntary submissions for differing modulation techniques to enhance the Loran signal are welcomed. Test programs to enhance the capability of Loran-C were established to allow for the following: Note: Please note that the information presented in this section is pre-decisional and not fully detailed. ?X Additional Communications over the Loran Signal: Methods of using the Loran-C signal to broadcast information to enhance system accuracy and integrity. ?X Differential Loran: The concept of differential Loran is being revisited to improve accuracy for both navigation and timing users. ?X Early Skywave: The effects of early skywaves on the integrity of Loran-C in the Continental U. S. ?X Time of Transmission (TOT) Control: Moving to TOT control would enable chain timing synchronization. ?X ??All-In-View?? Receivers: The use of ??all-in-view?? receivers will no longer be constrained by Loran-chain geometry. ?X Ongoing collection of ASF correction data. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to help the U. S. Coast Guard meet the original goals of the Loran-C program and, in particular, to assist the U. S. Coast Guard staff to identify and assess mechanisms for viewing, monitoring and analyzing Loran-C data in the context of a receiver to be used as a component in an operational Command and Control System. We are using this RFI to gather additional information to help the U. S. Coast Guard to understand the capabilities of software receiver technology and to identify qualified vendors who might be able to meet our future requirements. While this RFI focuses on a new operational Loran receiver, the U. S. Coast Guard remains open to alternative ideas and considerations, as pertaining to the enhancement of the Loran-C signal availability, integrity, accuracy and continuity. Respondents are encouraged to provide information about alternative methodologies that may help the U. S. Coast Guard better understand the potential of using differing analog / digital / hybrid modulation schemes to assess whether solutions exist to enhance the capability of Loran-C, while not affecting current users of the Loran-C system. DESCRIPTION OF INFORMATION REQUESTED All vendors with an appropriate product or capability to produce a product relating to the requirements, set forth in the Potential Requirements Table attached hereto are invited to submit a Capability Statement and contact information. The Capability Statement should discuss the product??s capabilities as against the potential requirements, the product??s system requirements, the product??s integration specification (if available), and any other specific and pertinent information that would enhance the U. S. Coast Guard??s understanding of the information submitted. Respondents should also complete the Potential Requirements Table which contains provisional requirements for the U. S. Coast Guard??s operational receiver initiative. We recognize that not all requirements may be met by a single system. Please indicate in your response which capabilities require custom developed solutions. Recommendations for functional or operational requirements for the receiver are warranted and will be welcomed. DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. Respondents needing confidential treatment for any proprietary information they furnish must comply with the U. S. Coast Guard??s confidential treatment regulations at 17 C.F.R. 200.83. Responses to this RFI will not be returned. HOW TO RESPOND Please submit your response to this RFI via email to Jeannie Sansone at Jeannie.L.Sansone@uscg.mil, phone 609.523.7258, by Tuesday, February 28th, 2006, at 10:00 A.M. EST. POTENTIAL REQUIREMENTS TABLE # Vendor Name/Product: (fill in vendor name/product) Requirements Provide Capability Y/N Comments High Level 1 The system shall be fully compliant with the Specification of the Transmitted LORAN-C Signal, COMDTINST M16562.4A, Commandant, USCG, May 1994. http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pubs/loran/sigspec/Default.htm 2 The receiver shall be located at Loran Stations and monitoring sites to ensure Loran-C signal integrity 3 The receiver shall have the capability to mitigate the adverse effects of Precipitation Static, Cross Rate Interference, and ground conductivity changes 4 The receiver shall be capable of detecting and providing an alarm for early skywaves 5 The receiver shall be capable of tracking Group Repetition Intervals (GRIs) from 29,300 microseconds to 100,000 microseconds in 10 microsecond steps 6 The receiver must be a stand-alone Loran-C receiver 7 The receiver shall be able to be locally and remotely queried and controlled 8 The receiver shall have an interface for data logging 9 The receiver shall compute the Loran position from Time of Arrival (TOA) and Time of Transmission (TOT) measurements. 10 The receiver shall be scalable so as to produce a real-time Loran position that uses current and future Loran ASF correctional data 11 The core algorithms of the receiver shall be reconfigured without the need for additional hardware 12 The receiver shall have the ability to input any corrected Loran measurements in real-time. Any corrected measurements shall be obtained independent of GPS technology 13 The receiver software shall provide monitoring of real-time ASF correction data for stability 14 The receiver shall have the ability to perform self diagnostics or ??Built-In-Test (BIT) for automatic determination of failures 15 The receiver shall have the ability to operate in navigation, timing, monitor, and aviation modes 16 The receiver shall have the ability to generate precise time code information 17 The receiver shall contain an arbitrary time reference and take inputs from time sources such as TWSTT, Rubidium steered by GPS, Cesium clocks, etc. 18 The receiver shall have the ability to operate in a marine environment with consideration for vibration, heat, and water resistance 19 The receiver shall have minimal preventative and corrective maintenance procedures 20 The receiver shall have no proprietary interfaces 21 The receiver shall provide a stable time reference, traceable to UTC within ten nanoseconds root mean square 22 The receiver shall be capable of operating with an E-field or H-field antenna 23 The receiver shall be rack mountable in an EIA standard 19 inch rack 24 The receiver shall operate using AC power (120 volts AC +/- 10%) at a frequency of 60 Hz 25 The receiver shall have a backup power source that must be able to provide backup power to the receiver for a minimum of two hours
 

Place of Performance

Address: Note Contracting Site is also the following address, US Coast Guard, Loran Support Unit, 12001 Pacific Ave, Wildwood, NJ

Zip Code: 08260

Country: USA
 

Record

SN00977114-W 20060202/060131213636 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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