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"All Time" All-The-Time Shortwave Station WWV May Be Shut Down
I'm not sure how many people ever use WWV, the Ft. Collins, Colorado shotwave station that provides coordinated universal time to the entire world. (It's used by TV networks and other industries in order to be able to coordinate schedules to the exact second.) I literally set my watch by this SW outlet and have for decades.
But now it appears there's a danger that the longtime broadcaster, doing its thing since 1920, could be shut down next year as a result of proposed U.S. budget cuts. (Canada has its own less powerful version called "CHU," which gives up-to-the-minute minutes in both English and French.)
It's not just crazy people like me who use it to keep things to the exact time. For years, many clocks and other devices have been built able to "tune" to the frequencies to create timepieces that can never be wrong.
While they wouldn't stop working without WWV, they would no longer be guaranteed to be 100% accurate. I, for one, would miss it if it went away. I wonder if anyone else would even notice.
Concern Rising within Amateur Radio Community over WWV-WWVH Shut Down Proposal
- Chrisphen
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Re: "All Time" All-The-Time Shortwave Station WWV May Be Shut Down
5000 kHz is a valuable resource.
- Peter the K
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Re: "All Time" All-The-Time Shortwave Station WWV May Be Shut Down
I remember when I used to set my watch by either WWV or CHU. Then when windows started supporting ntp time synchronization, I didn't really need it anymore. WWV and CHU even maintain their own time servers you can point your computer at to keep things accurate. I've even tweaked my registry to update the time every 13 minutes so I know it's always right on the money. Now I just set my watch to my PC.
I actually have one of those atomic clocks that would set itself to whatever WWV frequency it could latch onto. It worked great but because of the RF interference radiating throughout the house, the clock would only synchronize if I left it outside in the back yard overnight.
Still kind of fun to tune into CHU via sdr and hear the dulcet tones of the late Harry Mannis forever reading the time in English.
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Re: "All Time" All-The-Time Shortwave Station WWV May Be Shut Down
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