I doubt that. LORAN A and C were pulse systems with high peak power
[some LORAN C stations fed over a megawatt peak to the antenna], but the
average power was much lower. Before LORAN C's demise, a handful of
stations were fitted with Accufix transmitters by Megapulse Corporation
... no tubes, no oscillators, no amplifiers ... just a highly
technologically advanced spark gap transmitter.
The NIST description for WWVB is found at
<https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/radio-stations/wwvb>
Briefly, 2 transmitters feeding two capacity-loaded monopoles about 850
m apart. Combined fwd power is about 100 KW. One of the antennas was
originally used for WWVL on 20 KHz [decommissioned in the 70's].
There is some confusion regarding rumors of the demise of WWV/WWVH ...
and maybe WWVB:
1. Congress, not the White House, appropriates $$ to government
agencies. The House and Senate are said by an ARRL Director to have
passed their bills and they are now in or about to be in conference
committee. It appears they both appropriate substantially more than
NIST requested, and their numbers are moderately close so reconciliation
in conference is likely.
2. There is the internal NIST budgetary document that started all the
rumors.
3. NIST is planning a "Grand Celebration" for the 100th birthday of WWV
in Oct 2019 [presumably without a military parade]. WWV is said to be
the oldest continuously operating radio station in the US.
Confusing indeed. This could all be similar to the rumor rampant on the
I'net a decade or so ago about not flying between some dates in August
because the GPS Week Number was about to overflow its word length,
rolling over to zero, and airplanes would be falling out of the sky.
The Week Nr did overflow, but no airplanes are known to have plummeted
to Earth.
More Trivia: In the very early days of WWV, the time signals were in
Morse code. [I remember in the early 50's they were too, in Eastern
Time]. WWV also broadcast farm reports and news ... using Morse code.
I had no idea the wheat, corn, and soybean farmers of the day could
copy the code.
73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County
On 8/20/2018 9:54 AM, Rose wrote:
Trivia ..
The last I knew the WWVB transmitter is a "repurposed" 100KW
LORAN C TX from the closed site in ND.
73!
K0PP
On Mon, Aug 20, 2018 at 10:45 AM, Charlie T <[email protected]> wrote:
Yeah, I'd miss them, BUT, my little Elecraft hand-held XG3 sig gen is
pretty
handy for that too .
Also, I don't believe funding for the 60kHz sig was ever at risk and THAT's
what your (antique) watch uses.
73, Charlie k3ICH
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
On
Behalf Of Wayne Burdick
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2018 11:53 AM
To: Elecraft Reflector <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] WWV/WWVH Closure
Personal note....
Ever since I home-brewed my first receiver when I was 15, I've used WWV at
multiple frequencies as a source of reliable on-air test signals.
My early receivers used simple direct-conversion schemes based on JFETs
(remember the MPF102?). Get the details wrong, and you'd hear WWV whether
you were tuned to it or not, thanks to what I now know was IP2 (AM
breakthrough). Do it right, and you'd be rewarded with those undulating
time-tones: minimalist, almost musical. Something Phillip Glass would pipe
into his sensory-deprevation tank. Oh, and you could set your watch to it.
These days I still tune into WWV to check VFO calibration, set clocks in
the
field, and get an approximation of the MUF (Maximum usable frequency). When
propagation is good, even the 20.000000 MHz signal soars across the aether,
a faithful and tireless chronological savant.
Losing it would be a tragedy, but a nerdy one, not Greek.
Wayne
N6KR
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