True, I was referring to having checks and balances with a GPSDO option. What you're doing there is cool and fun - the kind of stuff I like - but is really a pretty obscure pursuit. You could still do this with someone who puts up a signal, like with the ARRL's FMT's, but WWV is the gold standard and always there (currently). It would be a shame if it goes away...
If WWV survives another 1657 days, to 6 March 2023, it can celebrate its 100 year anniversary. At the tone... only 4 years, 6 months, 12 days, 20 minutes, 6 seconds to go... Universal Coordinated Time... BEEP. Tick. Tock. WWV began regularly schedule broadcasts of time and frequency on 6 March 1923. Excerpt from the 1973 document: WWV'S FUTURE Will WWV survive another 50 years? Who knows? "The National Bureau of Standards is currently engaged in perfecting alternate forms of dissemination which might make standard shortwave broadcasts obsolete." says James A. Barnes. Barnes is Chief of the NBS Time and Frequency Division. Until alternate methods are perfected. John Stanley. WWV's Chief Engineer, and his dedicated crew at the Fort Collins site will continue the service which has survived 50 years of wars, depressions, moves, and fire.
For those interested in propagation experiements there is this Dopplergram@groups.io They do some pretty sophisticated experiments
So all radio controlled "Atomic Clocks" will become useless and clock manufacturers can now charge triple for a new design quartz or cesium wall clock? NO THANK YOU!
That might be true, but apparently you missed out about 10 years ago when WWV changed the data format and cause the same. At that point I decided my alarm clock didn't need that accuracy, but I did go for s/w & h/w that gave millisecond accuracy on my PCs courtesy GPS. Do I need ms accuracy on anything? NO! But, it is what it is ... .. .
The new data format they added is backwards compatible with almost all radio-set clocks, so the old clocks still stay in sync: all mine still do. It's only certain very old devices that no longer sync (several decades old).
Sign the official petition. It needs a lot more signatures. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/proposed-shutdown-nists-wwv-and-wwvh-radio-stations
Apparently mine were not in the almost and definitely were not decades old. They went to the trash heap. PC/smart tablet/phone app runs my clocks & alarms & show temp now. My Galaxy Tab 10.1 is 7 yrs old, synced with an MIT time sync server ... bonehed.lcs.mit.edu is close for me. Offset by network latency but there are many servers around. I also use use cheap GPS usb rcvrs in my computers for when 100ms accuracy just isn't enough. I suspect there are not enough HF hams that know, understand, or care about WWV. I have no idea about ham demographics (does anyone), but anecdotal trend seems to be some cheap a$$ piece of cr@p Chinse portable as their go to radio. Now if it had some salient feature that could tune any WWV station, then you might get another 8000 signatures
That's true, but IIRC, the designs that broke were the better quality ones that used synchronous and/or PLL detection of the ASK carrier.
They now have micro rubidium atomic clocks/frequency synthesizer/standards relatively cheap that can be used as references for consumer use. They are accurate to about 1 second every 30 years. Not quite as good as a cesium standard but good enough for us hams.
.... AND to get NIST traceability (you know, a 'cal' sticker; remember all that ISO9000 certification and such) takes a trip (or shipping to where) at a cost of how much?
nO, IT WASN'T, AND i HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN COMMS IN MILITARY SERVCE FOR A/C AND HELO. WWV AND THEIR 'SISTER' OPERATIONS, ARE STILL FUNDED BY THE PEOPLE, SO WE HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO DECIDE HOW THEY GET USED, ASIDE FROM JUST MILITARY. THESE STATIONS HAVE LONG BECOME THE BASIS FOR MANY CIVL PROJECTS AND OPERATIONS, AND MANY HAVE BECOME TIED TO THAT SERVICE IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER. ELIMINATING THIS IS A TRAVESTY, AND WILL BE A LOSS FOR THOSE NOT EVEN CONNECTED TO COMMS. ACTS LIKE THIS ARE A SLAP IN OUR FACE, CUTTING SERVICES THAT ARE NOT A REAL DRAIN ON OUR FINANCIAL RESOURCES, WHILE FUNDING GOVERNMENT JUNK 'SCIENCE' TO PROMOTE CORPORATE INTERESTS OVER THE WANTS AND NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE THAT GAVE THEM THEIR JOBS. THIS IS FAVORITISM, AND MUST BE STOPPED. WE DO NOT OPENLY ACCEPT THE EXCUSES GIVEN, THEY ARE BASELESS. OUR SOCIETY SHOULD HAVE ACCESS TO STABLE TIME REFERENCES... POLITICAL PET PROJECTS SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO TAKE PRIORITY OVER THE DEMANDS OF THE PEOPLE, PLAIN AND SIMPLE. WE THE PEOPLE, MUST COME FIRST!
Thanks, but how can this be used to calibrate our crystal calibrators and frequency counters? As everyone knows, the HF WWV transmissions are perfect for that.
The problem as I see it is their measurements of global warming. How can you say it is a hoax if it can be measured. Well I guess you can remove funding for those that dare to quantify it. Sad days, indeed. Jim N2GO
