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

I think I need to visit QRZ more often... I missed the dead line

 

WWV is an AM transmission, and is both a time, and a frequency standard. CHU is USB, which is absolutely useless, if you need a frequency standard, because you don't have a carrier to reference against.

 

More responses from NIST:

"Doug:
My apologies for the delay in responding and thanks for your concern about NIST’s time and frequency radio stations.
As you may know, NIST is prohibited from assisting with lobbying. In case it is helpful, below are links describing progress in the House and Senate to date to pass an appropriations bill and/or continuing resolution that would provide funding to NIST.
House
Senate
Continuing Resolution HR 6157
Also as you point out below, we will not know whether or not the NIST radio stations will continue operations until after the Congress enacts an FY 2019 appropriations law and the actual level of NIST funding for Scientific and Technical Research and Services is known. No changes have occurred to NIST services at this time.
Thanks,
Gail Porter
Director, Public Affairs Office
National Institute of Standards and Technology
M.S. 1070, 100 Bureau Dr.
Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1070
301-975-3392 (office)
301-367-7385 (cell)
Gail.porter@nist.gov"

Regarding WWV broadcasting an outdated propagation report for several days:

"I’m told that the NOAA Space Weather organization provides this information to NIST. There was an issue recently, but yesterday when I inquired about this, the information was being properly updated. Please contact NOAA if you still need information on the reason for the issue.
Thanks,
Gail"

 

Actually, I read that Canadians rely on WWVB and WWV as a means of getting time in the western and high-latitude provinces. The Canadians are now looking at public-private partnerships with DRM broadcasters to see if they can offer a time service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHU_(radio_station)#Western_Canada_signal_coverage

 

That's a slippery slope...

 

Well I've done a lot of searching in the past couple of weeks about using LF/HF time sources for NTP and it looks like the internet community gave up on the LF/HF time sources about 8 years ago. All recent references to NTP today just talk about the many internet time servers which are available and how accurate they are. The only non-internet time source clock talked about today is GPS.

So I'm thinking the internet community has already given up on WWV and WWVB. The new generation is just assuming the internet and GPS will always be available from this point forward.

There are some other LF/HF clock sources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_clock

I'm supposed to get my WWVB receiver today in the mail. And I have FreeBSD loaded up and I'm ready to start up an NTP server on it. Looks like this distro is the best chance of actually getting the wwv_audio decoder to work. If that works, I just need to convert 0/5 volts to -12/+12 volts and I should also be able to decode WWVB on a serial port DCD pin also.

Have Las Vegas odds been started up on whether or not WWV/WWVB get turned off or not? My money's going on them being turned off in the next couple of years. And instead of "atomic clocks," the manufacturers are going to start selling "WiFi clocks."

 

I use WWV all the time, I'm constantly aligning my TS-820S using it. I'm definitely sad to see it go. Its an important and valuable resource. I'm 14 by the way.

K0EVN

 

Damn shame. End of an era.... hopefully when their "new stuff" goes offline - it will, they will light this back up

 

This strikes me as an opportunity for business to step in- like Casio who has a vested interest due to the millions of atomic products they sell. Privatizing it could save it.

If Casio or some other corporation(s) brought the financing, I imagine a partnership could be struck with hams and other interested parties (dare I mention ARRL?) to run it. And I bet it could be run for significantly less per year than it is currently.

 

Could they then run commercial ads, and even sell air time in between time announcements (sort of like city buses carrying paid adverts)?

 

That is a distinct possibility I imagine, even if a blessing and a curse.

 

Great idea!

This minute brought to you by...

 

Well it is the 30th of September WWV still up and ticking..... more fake news????

 

The discussion is about a budget proposal, not an impending shutdown.