16 Nov 2023

FERNS 29

The Twenty-Nineth Session of the Far East Radio Navigation Service Council (FERNS 29) was held at the Huanghai Hotel in Qingdao, People’s Republic of China, from 8 to 9 November 2023, convened by Maritime Safety Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CMSA). A one-day meeting of the Technical Working Group (TWG) was conducted on 7th November 2023 and a technical tour to Navigation Brilliance (Qingdao) technology company focused on smart navigation will be organised on 9^th November 2023.

The Chairman, Mr. Li Hongyin, Deputy Director General of China MSA, welcomed all participants to Qingdao and recalled that the 1^st FERNS meeting was held in 1992 and many developments have happened since. Chayka and Loran-C have been the focus of FERNS. The most updated information related to eLoran, DLoran have been presented and also other services and systems providing back up for GNSS and resilient PNT sources as VDES R-Mode and Enhanced Radar Positioning System. High accuracy service from BeiDou based on PPP and the number of PNT projects amalgamated in the POINT and TRACE projects have also been discussed.

IALA has an observer role in FERNS and Jaime Alvarez, IALA Technical officer has participated in the meeting providing the overview of the draft guideline on resilient PNT, S-200 product specifications, the outcomes from the 20^th IALA Conference and the status of the IGO project.