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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/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @03:37PM (1 child)
Use Canada's broadcast then.
(Score: 3, Informative) by drussell on Monday August 27 2018, @05:39PM
I would hope that Canada will step up and start broadcasting on the old WWV frequencies if the USA decides to make the bone-headed move to discontinue their time service. CHU has always intentionally used different frequencies to not interfere with the operation of WWV.
Just saying "use the Canadian station" doesn't help the millions of installed devices that rely on WWV's current frequencies. CHU is also only broadcast from Ottawa and is not generally able to be received in a large part of western Canada and up north, even though the signal is intended to be able to reach worldwide.