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 Previous: LF-to-LF Transatlantic Amateur Contact is Completed |  Next: Westchester Emergency Communications Association |
 The WWVH 15-MHz phased vertical array on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 20, 2001--The National Institute of Standards and Technology plans to survey users of WWV and WWVH later this year. The time and frequency-standard stations have been airing occasional announcements about the upcoming poll in order to start building a mailing list of survey recipients. The announcements state that NIST "is seeking information on how listeners use the broadcast services offered on the WWV broadcast," but the survey will not begin for at least several weeks.
WWV Station Manager John Lowe says the announcements are being broadcast now as a heads up and to encourage early signups for the agency's survey mailing list. The survey itself will not be ready for release until it's been approved by the Office of Management and Budget, Lowe said. He doesn't expect that to happen until May, although he said the surveys could be ready sooner. He said the survey period likely would extend through the summer.
 Transmitting building of WWV used for the broadcasting of standard frequencies from December 1932 until destroyed by fire on November 6, 1940. This and other buildings of the National Bureau of Standards Radio Section were located on the Experimental Farm of the Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, northeast of Washington. Antennas and transmission-line feeders can be seen in the photograph. [Photo from Achievement in Radio, W.F. Snyder and C.L. Bragaw; US Govt Printing Office, 1986] |
According to Lowe, the last WWV-WWVH user survey was done in 1985. "We just don't know who our user base is anymore," he said. Lowe confirmed that the data collected ultimately could be used to determine whether WWV and WWVH remain on the air--especially given the popularity of NIST's other outlets, including its Web-based time server that gets in excess of 3 million hits a day.
"If we get only two people who say they're using WWV, then we've got a problem," he said. Lowe added that he does not think WWV and WWV will be shut down, and he vowed to "fight for the radio stations," if it came down to that. "But the ultimate decision is not in my hands," he said. "We have to look at our budget and our users."
 The WWV transmitter site in Ft Collins, Colorado. |
Lowe strongly encouraged WWV users to get on the mailing list and to send in a survey when the time comes. He suggested, however, that more weight will be given to survey responses from corporate and institutional users of the radio service as opposed to individual users.
To be added to the NIST WWV-WWVH survey mailing list, send your name and postal address to the NIST Radio Station WWV, 2000 E County Road 58, Ft Collins, CO 80524, or e-mail the information to nist.radio@boulder.nist.gov.
Lowe said WWV-WWVH users should hold their fire until the survey begins. Once OMB has okayed the survey, he said he plans to spread the word through all available means, including the NIST Web site.
 The WWV 5-MHz transmitter at Ft Collins, Colorado. [NIST Photos] |
WWV in Ft Collins, Colorado, and WWVH on Kauai, Hawaii, broadcast continuous time and frequency information to millions of listeners worldwide. Information broadcast includes time announcements, standard time intervals, standard frequencies, UT1 time corrections, a BCD time code, geophysical alerts, marine storm warnings, and Global Positioning System status reports.
WWV transmits double-sideband AM on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz using a separate transmitter for each frequency feeding half-wave vertical antennas. WWVH transmits on 2.5, 5, 10 and 15 MHz and uses phased vertical arrays on 5, 10 and 15 MHz.
The WWV call letters were assigned to the National Bureau of Standards (as NIST was then known) in 1919, and the station initiated experimental broadcasts from Washington, DC, in 1920--several months before the historic KDKA broadcasts. Standard frequency transmissions began in 1922; time announcements began in 1945, initially in Morse code, later in voice.
| Previous: LF-to-LF Transatlantic Amateur Contact is Completed | Next: Westchester Emergency Communications Association |
