Happy days indeed. I worked for Decca Survey in the UK (later Racal Survey) and started out on land based electronic navigation system. I worked for the Pulse 8 department for a while when we used it to send differential corrections for the GPS. The reference station was in Aberdeen. Did a lot of work on error correction coding. Decca/Racal had the first differential system running for precision positioning. Back in the days when SA was still on and sub meter accuracy was required instead of the then circa 100m of GPS. I believe we were the world leader at the time. How things have changed!
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I initially started with Geophysical Services Inc ( Texas Instruments), then moved to Horizon Exploration, Veritas and finally CGG, stayed in the marine seismic exploration business for 37 years then retired. In the 70's and 80's the industry was very cyclic, pegged to the oil price, used to have 6-8 year highs and lows. But it was a good industry and lots of fun ( and I was young) , still have friends all round the world. Prior to GPS we used Decca survey a fair bit in UK waters and the N/Sea and then Pulse 8 in parts of the Far East, the rest of the time it was mainly ARGO or Maxiran depending on range needed. I remember well the joys of helping set up texas tower base stations along the coast, then undertaking baseline crossings to confirm station positions.. Reliable GPS was a huge leap forward when it was available 24/7 and stopped the nightime issue of "Skywaves" and losing lane count on ARGO and Pulse 8 at extended ranges. Yes GPS changed the world in many ways.. but I had a lot of fun with radio nav..
