OH, but there is much more to this pen versus pencil story. Read on.... Originally, NASA astronauts, like the Soviet cosmonauts, used pencils, according to NASA historians. In fact, NASA ordered 34 mechanical pencils from Houston's Tycam Engineering Manufacturing, Inc., in 1965. They paid $4,382.50 or $128.89 per pencil. When these prices became public, there was an outcry and NASA scrambled to find something cheaper for the astronauts to use. Reference:https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/ Sounds like the same group doing the budget and running WWV... now you know the rest of the story....good day !
I figure we can save more taxpayer dollars by constructing rockets out of giant cardboard paper towel tubes and space suits made from plastic garbage bags and duct tape. Shouldn't cost anymore than a few hundred thousand to go to the moon. Same idea as far as WWV goes. All you need is a good microphone and a wall clock from MFJ.
I already pay too much in taxes. Elon Musk and SpaceX turned the tables on cost-structure for space rocket launches. So that cost savings has been approached. It's also why russia has a nice cosmodrome business / launching other country comms satellites for cash. Next ?
Zapping GPS satellites is the reason that we need Space Force? It would be cheaper to keep WWV up and running.
Not really - they are all having their budgets slashed too... We have become a nation that eats our own children...
I think this song's more appropriate for the topic: It's an interesting alternate version of the song, too. cue up the Chambers Brothers next ;-)
I see that not just a few posters don't seem to understand the frequency reference/frequency standard (and MUCH closer than just +-1 Hz) that WWV provides. These posters, they seem to think WWV ONLY provides an audible time function and nothing else akin to dialing local 'time and temperature' ... In fact, WWV provides AUDIO reference signals as well, at 500 and 600 Hz. I've used these to check sound cards before, to verify PC-based audio spectrum analyzers/display accuracy. Which brings this to mind, wasn't there a thread in another category that was titled "I am an appliance operator now" this last week? Perhaps, for some, and I say this expecting some flack, this has become the case?
Not in a $19 Sharper Image clock. I have only heard of ONE actual portable clock (wristwatch, in fact) that uses a cesium beam oscillator. It was a prototype, and AFAIK, never marketed. Here's a link: http://leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-bill/ You won't find a cesium beam oscillator in any consumer product. They're too expensive, big, heavy, and power-hungry to be practical for typical household use. A cesium beam oscillator is not, by itself, a source of accurate time. Once set, it does maintain time very accurately, but it still needs to be set. And even though it is quite accurate, it will drift relative to standards. If nothing else, general relativity will cause even a perfect clock to run a bit faster or slower depending on its altitude. http://leapsecond.com/great2005/ The value of WWV/WWVH/WWVB isn't that it's a way to set your wristwatch or wall clock, even though there is some value to that. It's that it's a traceable source of standard time and frequency, the best that available technology can provide, backed by NIST. A few amateurs can't reproduce that for 200K, though they might be able to come up with something adequate for setting your watch so that you won't be late for the train.
Try this one. https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-05/smallest-atomic-clock-ever-now-sale The signal from GPS work great too. I have free GPS on my iphone... Still have $6.295 million per year remaining....
well good then, you understand the pen vs pencil "story" Snope or not... that was the point, the govt pays way to much for unusually cheap things... running wwv being one of them I fully suspect. same team it seems.
Nope time to upgrade that ole Motorola or IFR service monitor to one that calibrates itself every time it gets turned on via GPS. Geeze even modern repeaters use GPS and backed up with Iridium Clock in the event the GPS fails. In fact you could not use a service monitor on a new modern repeater because the radio is at the top of the tower under the antenna and connected to ground via CPRI fiber optic link. You would have to have new Test Set with CPRI port to interrogate the radio, but you cannot calibrate the frequency. Get a kid to show you how.
Excuse me, but your reply comes across as quite an arrogant reply and assumes an awful lot, such as perceived naivety and 'primitiveness' on my part. Nothing could be further from the truth. Now, I need not instruct someone of your obvious superior character and bloviation, but not ALL my activities are centered in the 'first world'. How is one is to have an 'adult' conversation with one such as yourself if this is going to be your opening volley? I dare say I've been at the fore of tech for far more years than yourself, but since I prefer at times to deal with the 'simpler' gear so as not to lose touch with my roots, somebody who I have never met and is unaware of my contributions to both ham radio and radio in general takes it upon himself to heap scorn and derision upon my person. I don't know of any other retort save: "Go away and at the least cease bothering me."
