Happy Birthday WWVB!

[gunug]

One of my favorite reference points is the ham radio time broadcasts of WWV and WWVB and I've listened to them for most of my 57 years.  The first station was based in West Virginia and has been broadcasting for around 90 years.  The second station is in Fort Collins, Colorado and will be broadcasting for 50 years tomorrow (the 5th of July, 2013).  Mostly these days I try to use WWVB to sync with the battery powered radio referenced clocks that we have around in the schools.  Apparently this will be easier because they're going to boost the signal soon!

QUOTE

The broadcast comes from WWVB, a station run by the National Institute for Standards and Technology. WWVB marks half a century as the nation’s official time broadcaster on July 5. Together with its sister station, WWV, which is about to hit 90 years in service, NIST radio has been an invisible piece of American infrastructure that has advanced industries from entertainment to telecommunications. (WWV’s broadcast includes a wider range of information, including maritime weather warnings and solar storm alerts).

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/07/wwvb-time-radio/

[daryl66]

QUOTE

The broadcast comes from WWVB, a station run by the National Institute for Standards and Technology. WWVB marks half a century as the nation’s official time broadcaster on July 5. Together with its sister station, WWV, which is about to hit 90 years in service, NIST radio has been an invisible piece of American infrastructure that has advanced industries from entertainment to telecommunications. (WWV’s broadcast includes a wider range of information, including maritime weather warnings and solar storm alerts).

Probably a bit of "not so relevant trivia", back in another lifetime, while circumventing the globe courtesy  Uncle Sam's U.S. Navy, in the days before Satellites  etc, Uncle's ships HAD to tune into WWV for time signals, (not always an easy chore due to location, atmospherics and quality of the receiving equipment etc) once a day to sync/compensate their chronometers. Part of my duties as a "Radioman" included finding WWV, which broadcasted on AM radio in 5KB increments as I recall. For those without old "sealegs" the chronometers provided part of the necessary info required to Navigate.

Daryl

[gunug]

Thanks Daryl for the followup; I knew there had to be others that were touched by WWVB and WWV.  I had shortwave radios pretty early and the time bases were references for the other places I was wanting to go!