What Time Is It?

For listeners of WWV and WWVH, that isn't a problem. Why you say? WWV and WWVH are US Government time stations. Time stations? What the heck is that?

Long before GPS, actually in the 1920's, electronics needed a time/frequency standard for accurate measurements. Time/frequency radio stations provided (and still do) that service. WWV was the first going on the air in 1920 from Washington, DC. Over the next few years WWV moved around the Washington area before settling in at Beltsville, MD from 1932 to 1966 when the station was relocated to Fort Collins, CO to better serve the lower 48 continental United States. WWV operates on five shortwave frequencies, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz and 20 MHz. WWVH is located on the island of Kauai, HI with four shortwave frequencies of 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 15 MHz and serves the Pacific Basin.

So what do you hear on WWV/WWVH? Well with a shortwave radio tuned to WWV/WWVH you hear, clock ticks, varies tones, top of the minute time announcements ("At the tone the time will be 15 hours 32 minutes Universal Coordinated Time - BEEEEP") and at certain minutes of the hour, oceanic weather conditions, solar wind conditions and shortwave propagation conditions are broadcast. And that is about it. But what you can't hear is just as important if not more.

Because WWV/WWVH uses atomic clocks to be sure they are EXACTLY on time, this also allows the transmitters to be EXACTLY on frequency. This also allows a subcarrier to be transmitted with digital information that can be read by computers for all kinds of test and measurement and standards signals and the user knows that it is as accurate as can be made.

If you remember seeing the "atomic clocks" of a few years ago, they worked on a very similar system. Instead of using shortwave of WWV or WVVH, they received a special time signal station co-located with WWV, time signal station WWVB. WWVB broadcasts on the Long Wave band below the AM band at 60 kHz. This allows the signal to be more stable and remain receivable longer with more reliability than the shortwave frequencies used by WWV/WWVH. Because the frequency is so low, WWVB doesn't use voice to broadcast information. It broadcasts computer data and these same atomic clocks that WWV/WWVH use are also used on WWVB's signal to keep corrected time and frequency.

In the late 90's NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government agency that runs WWV/WWVH/WWVB, completely rebuilt WWVB and increased its power. WWVB had started at the Ft Collins site in 1963. The station was long overdue for a rebuild. This rebuilding is what spurred the atomic clock craze of the late 90's and early 2000's. You can't as easily find atomic clocks as you once could because of GPS, but they are still out there and there are many reasons where the NIST stations are preferred over GPS, even though GPS provides everything the NIST stations provide. WWVB reception isn't affected by the Sun as WWV/WWVH and GPS is. The 60 kHz receivers are much cheaper than GPS receivers. The data is easier to manipulate and you don't need a clear view of the sky to make it work as with GPS.

When I first went to work at the station in 1992, we had a 1980's model WWV Master Clock receive system at the studio that kept us on time for network and other programming. In the late 90's we upgraded to an early GPS Master Clock system and replaced the aging and ailing WWV Master Clock system. When we installed the new automation system a couple of years ago we had to install a better GPS Master Clock system that offered more features that the automation required. I grabbed the original GPS Master Clock system and moved it to the main transmitter building and it is really nice to have it and what it does. But at the backup transmitter building, it doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money just to tell time, which is all I need there. So two $39 Radio Shack atomic clocks work just fine. Time correction provided by WWVB, Fort Collins, Colorado of course!

Back in the tube days, test equipment at stations were not as stable as they are now and required a known frequency standard to keep the equipment and transmitters within tolerance. Cheapest way to do it? In the rack was a WWV receiver with a test port on it for the standards measurement. We had a WWV receiver at the transmitter for that very purpose. When we rebuilt the transmitter site in 1994, the receiver was finally retired. That old receiver is now in my collection. It still works!

Technically the NIST stations are utility stations because they serve a utilitarian purpose, but they are also fun to listen to. Depending on how the band conditions are, it isn't too unusual to hear WWVH under WWV at times. Since both stations are exactly on the same frequency, there is no interference and you will hear the female WWVH voice announce the time at :45 seconds followed by the WWV male voice announcing the time at :53 seconds as if from a single station. That is how you tell which station you are hearing. WWV/WWVH identify themselves at :00 minutes and :30 minutes.

Other countries have time/standards stations as well. In the US, the easiest one to hear is CHU, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CHU broadcasts on 3 frequencies, 3.33 MHz, 7850 MHz and 14.67 MHz. CHU alternates time announcements every minute with French on the odd minute and English on the even minute with station ID every minute. "CHU, Canada. 15 hours 32 minutes UTC."

For more info on WWV/WWVH/WWVB including pictures go to http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div847/grp40/wwv.cfm. For CHU check out http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/inms/time-services/short-wave.html

Digital Transition - One Year Later

June 12th, 2010 makes the first anniversary of the termination of full power analog broadcasting in the United States. So how has the broadcasting world changed in that first year? Actually not that much. Over the air digital television has certainly gone through some teething pains and continues to do so. Some people on the fringe of analog stations can no longer receive those same stations as digital stations. Some stations have had to change digital channels after the transition to improve reception to it viewers. Some stations have had to add low power translator stations to cover the same area they did as analog stations. Over the air viewers are relearning the lessons about antenna reception with digital as their parents and grandparents did in the 50's and 60's before cable and satellite. While we still field reception questions, it really isn't more than what it was in the analog days, believe it or not.

Certainly the transition to digital over the air television was not 100% painless as some in the government and trade organizations made it out to be. Some viewers have lost stations they grew up with because those stations are no longer on VHF channels and UHF doesn't quite carry as far way out on the fringe while other viewers are now receiving stations they never received before. Of course if you are one of the viewers who lost stations, this whole digital TV thing sucks. If you were one of the viewers who picked up new stations, this digital TV thing is pretty cool. It is all in your perspective.

What we are finding is that viewers with decent outside antennas pick up all the local stations with no problems. Those with inside antennas have problems. Truth is, those viewers always had problems in the analog days but because they could see something, even a noisy static filled signal, they put up with the aggravation of a bad signal. In the digital world, if the signal isn't a certain signal level, a "NO SIGNAL" will be seen on the screen so those viewers see nothing. We have proven time and time again that a UHF screen antenna mounted in a bucket on an apartment porch or balcony will receive more stations and better signals than an indoor antenna. Yet, when you tell people that, they think you are lying to them to just get them off the telephone. We WANT YOU as viewer. Why would we lie about something like that?

I must admit, I always have to suppress a laugh when I get a viewer who tells me, that the problem they are experiencing is with our station only. And just about EVERY caller tells me that. Listen folks, you aren't the first ones to tell me that and that will NOT make me move any faster. Been there. Done that. Got the tee shirt. 99% of the time, after asking several questions, it turns out that we are NOT the only station they are having a problem with. Most of the time, the viewer doesn't realize they have problems on other channels. One such example was a call I got from a little old lady about 15 years ago. She called up complaining she could get all the other channels except us and she wanted us to "fix our problem." After questioning her about her problem, I asked her how old was her TV. She immediately snapped back, "I can guarantee you it isn't MY TV. It is only 20 years old!" Twenty years old? Right. Not your TV. Well it turned out it WAS her TV. The mechanical tuner in this late 1970's model TV (this was before the electronic tuners we have today) had just worn out after 20 years of use. It happens. It is mechanical. She finally admitted after a few more questions she had to rock the channel knob back and forth on ALL stations to get them to come in. Classic mechanical tuner issue. But remember, she only had this problem with OUR station.

I got a call a few months back from a lady who lives about 5 miles from the transmitter complaining she could get all the other stations but couldn't get us and we needed to "fix our problem." (See the pattern?) After asking the usual questions, it sounded like the signal wasn't getting from the antenna to the TV. But no, it was only our station. I recommended some things to do and a few days later, she called me back to say that her son had gone on the roof and found where the coax had become disconnected from the antenna and she now had a perfect signal and thanked me for the information. (I like THOSE calls!)

I can honestly say that 99% of the callers are truly nice people who really want to watch our station and are looking for answers (sometimes miracles) from us. They are just very adamant about it at times. But that last one percent can be so vile and so hateful, we just hang up on them. That is verbal abuse and we are not required to deal with those callers and we don't.

Most of the issues these days deal with antennas and their placement. Lots of bad information out there about antennas and how to install them. A big one we are seeing are people installing two antennas, one pointed to Sauratown Mountain for WXII and WUNL and the other pointed toward north of Randleman where the other stations are located and using a splitter in reverse to combine the two into one to avoid having to use a rotor. On paper, this looks like a great idea. In reality, you have to know you are doing to make this work. The problem is you can introduce multipath (ghosting) in the system. With one antenna pointed in one direction and the other antenna pointed in another direction, the signals of the stations arrive at slightly different times to your receiver causing ghosting since one of the signals has to travel a longer distance by bouncing off of something like a water tank or building and then being received by the other antenna. Your receiver sees the two (or more) signals and is not sure which one to lock and so you don't get any picture at all or it breaks up at best. You have to use special antenna combiners and the length of cable between the antennas and the combiner is critical as well to not have this internal ghosting. You may also need specific channel filters to reduce ghosting or overloading of the receiver. It can get very complicated and you will need expensive test equipment to trouble shoot problems as well to make it work. You are basically creating a small cable headend and they are not simple or cheap things.

I must admit, I have gotten smarter myself as people call and I have to try and troubleshoot their problems over the phone so it has been a win-win as far as I can tell. As time goes by, things will get better. The same thing happened with analog TV. It got better over time. Digital will also. In just 12 months, things have gotten much better and the ratings show it. So hang in there. We are.