Blog Editor’s Note: I have an analog clock in my office that I never have to adjust because it is synced with WWV. While neither WWV nor WWVH are sufficiently precise for most commercial applications, it would be interesting to know which users will be impacted if this reduction goes through.
I recall using WWV all the time as a shipboard navigator when resetting the chronometer and taking celestial fixes. But both of those have been replaced by GPS. Recently a friend was watching academy cadets practicing star sights so that they had an alternative to GPS. When they needed to get the time of their sight to calculate their position, they just punched the button on the ECDIS – which, of course gets its time from GPS.
swling.com
NIST FY2019 budget includes request to shutdown WWV and WWVH
Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post readers who have pointed out the NIST 2019 Presidential Budget request which has now been posted online and includes a desired reduction of:
“$6.3 million supporting fundamental measurement dissemination, including the shutdown of NIST radio stations in Colorado and Hawaii“
WWV’s transmitter building in Fort Collins, Colorado (2014)
I’ve always considered WWV and WWVH to be the heartbeat of the shortwaves here in North America–a constant, timely companion and brilliant gauge of HF propagation. Indeed, on a personal note, WWV was actually the first station I ever remember hearing on shortwave.
