Consol

• Published in: Journal of Navigation
• Main Author: Jessell, A. H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1948
• Subjects: Ocean Engineering; Oceanography; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0373463300034500; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0373463300034500

Consol is the name now given to a navigational aid developed by the Germans during the war. A Consol beacon broadcasts on a medium frequency a pattern of dots and dashes, and by listening to this pattern on an ordinary ship or aircraft wireless receiver a navigator can determine his bearing from the beacon with a much greater accuracy than is possible with a D/F loop. The accuracy of the bearings obtained depends on the bearing of the observer from the beacon; it is greatest along a line called the normal of the beacon and decreases until it is zero along a line at right angles to the normal. The useful coverage with the existing type of beacon is about 280° out of 360°. With such a beacon the range over the North Atlantic is about 1200 n.m. by day and 1700 n.m. by night; the probable error on the normal is by day about ° and by night (at ranges greater than 500 n.m.) about ½°.