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posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 27 2018, @09:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the two-bells-and-all's-not-well dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

Buried on page 25 of the 2019 budget proposal for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under the heading "Fundamental Measurement, Quantum Science, and Measurement Dissemination", there's a short entry that has caused plenty of debate and even a fair deal of anger among those in the amateur radio scene:

NIST will discontinue the dissemination of the U.S. time and frequency via the NIST radio stations in Hawaii and Ft. Collins, CO. These radio stations transmit signals that are used to synchronize consumer electronic products like wall clocks, clock radios, and wristwatches, and may be used in other applications like appliances, cameras, and irrigation controllers.

The NIST stations in Hawaii and Colorado are the home of WWV, WWVH, and WWVB. The oldest of these stations, WWV, has been broadcasting in some form or another since 1920; making it the longest continually operating radio station in the United States. Yet in order to save approximately $6.3 million, these time and frequency standard stations are potentially on the chopping block.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/08/20/what-will-you-do-if-wwvb-goes-silent/


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Monday August 27 2018, @04:23PM (1 child)

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Monday August 27 2018, @04:23PM (#726970) Journal

    And isn't GPS overkill for a device that does not need to keep track of its own location?

    No, there's really no such thing as "too accurate", but GPS doesn't each into all the locations that the HF signals coming from these stations do, so it's less functional overall. Plus it can't replace the functionality in existing devices that depend on the HF signals, of which there are many.

    I consider terminating these services to be a very poor decision.

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  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday August 27 2018, @09:06PM

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Monday August 27 2018, @09:06PM (#727131) Journal

    ...but GPS doesn't each reach into all the locations...

    Double-damn not being able to edit posts. 💩 !!!