"RB" wrote in
:

Does the length of a LORAN metal whip matter much?

Yes, it matters a lot. Loran operates at 100 Khz, Very Low Frequency. The
antennas are heavily coil loaded to tune them at this low a frequency and
very narrow banded. The whip length is part of this tuning and if you
change it to a different length the antenna is way out of tune and not near
as sensitive. It may still function out of tune, but signals will be down.