Degaussing Range

[muckypup]

Just off Penlee Pt near Plymouth there is a restricted anchoring area marked on my C-Map chart as Degaussing Range... Anyone have any idea what this is?

S.

 

[tome]

There's a good chance it might be a degaussing range

 

[savageseadog]

It's those pesky parasitic gausses, you sail over the range to get rid of them.

 

[sailorman]

war time anti magnetic devise to stop ships being blown-up by magnetic mines
so perhaps the area marked is where they done Degaussing /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Alrob]

I remember watching a program about this on UK history - did they not cover the hull in copper wire or something like that to make them anti magnetic ??

 

[sailorman]

run a "Coil" around the ships i think

 

[muckypup]

ah.. now I understand! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

S.

 

[pampas]

Every ship produces a magnetic signature, by steaming over a sea bed coil this can be measured for every ship and must be updated, this signature could be placed in a mine to exlpode ONLY when that ship passed within range. Merchant ship used to have the box fitted either one big cable around the hull (Inside) or three smaller sections ABor C the signature was then read with it off and again with it on and then calibrated to suit the ship for different Lats and lons. Spent mainly an unhappy hour drying out the cables just to keep it up to scratch just so the Ole man could test it at some obcene hour. Hope this enlightens you about your Query about the ranges and the reason why anchoring is verbotton /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[muckypup]

Blimey... is it still in use?

S.

 

[boatbuilder]

It may not be of use anymore but if you anchor in it MOD plod will nick you. As some owners found out last year, also fishing prohibited , and a few got done for that as well.
Well they have to do some thing to aleviate the bore dom of cruising about for 8 hrs a day trying to protect the non existant warships.

 

[ems]

You'll probably find an extremely FOUL BOTTOM!!!

 

[bdsweeting]

The range off Weymouth harbour is still in use.

 

[Cruiser2B]

Pampas explained it fairly well. The fitted DG coils in the ship reduce the induced magnetism in the ship, so that it won't trigger a magnetic-influence mine. The range measures the effectiveness of the ships' DG systems. They are still in use. When a ship's hull picks up too large of a permanent magnetic charge, they wrap cables around it and this is called "deperming".

 

[jerryat]

Yep, and the range at Plymouth is also regularly used. At least, the warships still track back and forth between the marker buoys regularly! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[john_morris_uk]

To reinforce what a few others have said.

1. Yes the degaussing range is still used.

2. It measures the magnetic signature of the ship, and enables the ship to use some fancy electronics (and some big coils of wire built into the ship) to reduce the magnetic signature and hopefully reduce the chances of being blown up by a magnetic mine.

 

[EBoat126]

This might have some more info

http://www.qinetiq.com/home/defence/test_and_evaluation/maritime_range.html

 

[doug748]

Watched a Fleet Aux ship using it last week. Looked a picture form Penlee Point, in superb visibility; unlike this week!

 

[Hermit]

The one at Weymouth is for the noise signature though, not magnetic.