Shutoff of WWV-WWVH: two days left to the end of the subscription

I remember that the signatures, for asking the US Government to keep running the time & frequency standard stations WWV and WWVH, which the NIST wants to close for budget restrictions, end the day after tomorrow, 15 Sep 2018.

At now, few more than 19,000 signatures arrived, but 100,000 are needed.

Here the link where to sign in: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/maintain-funding-nist-stations-wwv-wwvh. All the people is welcome: OMs, friends, familiars, also non-US citizens (I'm Italian and, as far as I can know by the counter, my signature was accepted).

For those who don't understand the importance of these stations, which operate in the HF bands, it is not matter of the exact time - which is alternatively broadcasted from the GPS or in the Internet by the NTP - but they are very useful for propagation (and for the alignment of vintage radios, if we don't have a RF generator...).

Signing is very simple: name, surename, e-mail address and confirm the e-mail that you will receive immediately.

I cannot guess that, worldwide, there aren't 80,000 among we OMs and friends of us, who can take two minutes for signing!

Tnx ex 73 de
Alberto, IZ2EWV

 

Alberto means the deadline for signing the petition is fast approaching. WWV doesnt close down on Sept 15.

 

Click-bait-y headlines aren't helping WWV's cause a bit.

 

Well, there's always CHU. It's close enough for government work!

 

Petition deadline to save WWV (etc) is two days away. That title is horribly misleading.

 

Indeed.

 

That is roughly half the size of the entire ARRL membership. When the ARRL last asked all amateurs in the US to participate in a poll, they got fewer than 8,000 responses.

Unfortunately, a petition requiring 100k signatures is probably not the right tool to save WWV.

 

The younger hams (at least many of them) just don't use WWV or care what happens to it. Kind of like VOA the BBC broadcasts before they disappeared. Most don't work on their own equipment so they don't need a frequency standard. It's a shame, but that's the way many things go in this day.

 

Don't worry, folks. Nature abhors a vacuum. The day after WWV shuts down, BWV will start up on those same frequencies. It may take some getting used to, but the numerals in Mandarin are easy to learn, and you'll always know what time it is in Beijing.

 

I signed, for what it's worth.

 

We hams are supposed to be able to keep our rigs inside the band limits, and should have some frequency reference that we can trust. The closer to the band edge, the better the needed reference. Those who work UHF-up need a more accurate & stable reference.
For time and frequency, there are alternatives to WWV(H), such as GPS (http://www.gps.gov/). Propagation (or lack of it) is not an issue. There are a plethora of GPS Disciplined Oscillators available.

For example, I purchased an interface PCBA kit for my Kenwood TS-850S that drops in place of the SO-2 TCXO (link):

...and use it with an external 10 MHz source (GPS, Rubidium, etc).
If the external source stops, the OE crystal oscillator is 'automagically' enabled.
Now, when someone tells me I'm off frequency, I can say with confidence, "Nope."

 

I've signed the petition.
Jerry W4CDO