A VISIT TO WWVH

August 05, 2018

A typical antenna at the station, constructed of fiberglass (to resist corrosion from the salty ocean air) with a copper-wound core. Seen in the distance is the island of Niihau.
Photo Credit: D. Okayama/NIST

A VISIT TO WWVH

Time on the Beach: Working at NIST Hawaii

At some time or other, just about everyone would have heard both WWV and WWVH, the standard time and frequency transmissions from the U.S.A. on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 mHz. These stations have been reliable beacons on the radio dial for many decades now. Here's a really interesting article by Andrew Nobleman that appeared on the blog of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) last month. My thanks to Ken Reitz at The Spectrum Monitor for the heads-up on this article.

Time on the Beach: Working at NIST Hawaii

by Andrew Nobleman

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has campuses in Maryland, Colorado, South Carolina and Hawaii.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Hawaiian campus? How do I get a job at NIST?”

Perhaps calling it a “campus” is a bit of an exaggeration. Ensconced within the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on the western Hawaiian island of Kauai (pronounced ka-why-ee), sits one of NIST’s shortwave radio stations, perhaps best known by its call sign, WWVH.

Kauai is a beautiful and remote island with unique climate diversity. In the middle of the island, you have one of the wettest places on Earth, Mount Waialeale (pronounced why-ah-lay-ah-lay), which receives an average of 1,148 centimeters (452 inches) of rain per year. Twenty-five kilometers away, the island’s western coast gets a mere 56 cm (22 inches) of rain per year. This is where you will find the NIST radio station.

WWVH’s main objective is to broadcast Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)—the official time for the entire planet—throughout the Pacific region. Those signals help their audience coordinate, calibrate and synchronize their clocks and equipment, which are vital to telecommunications, internet connections and a whole host of other services.

In addition to accurate time and frequency information, the station also broadcasts weather alerts and space weather reports.

"At the tone …"

From Alaska to Australia and from California to China, if you tune your receiver to WWVH, you’ll hear Jane Barbe speaking to you. If you don’t already know her by name, you may know her voice. It was her recorded voice that in past decades told callers who left their phones off the hook for too long (ask your parents), “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and try again. If you need help, hang up and then dial your operator.”

Although Barbe died in 2003, her beloved voice lives on.

WWVH actually broadcasts her voice using several frequencies: 2.5, 5, 10 and 15 megahertz. The different frequencies cast a wide net so that users of the broadcast will receive a signal regardless of interference from mountains, atmospheric activity or the time of day. This technique allows users to always have access to the correct time as well as the other information provided by WWVH.

WWVH’s sister station, WWV, broadcasts out of Fort Collins, Colorado. Both stations broadcast on the same frequencies. While WWVH uses Barbe’s voice, WWV uses that of former San Francisco radio host Lee Rodgers, who died in 2013. If the ionospheric conditions are just right, users can hear both stations. In addition to using different voices, WWVH and WWV make their announcements at different time intervals to prevent overlap and confusion.

Why Hawaii?

In 1947, NIST determined it needed to create a second station to supplement WWV and expand its coverage area to the Pacific Rim. The WWVH broadcast station was originally built at Kihei on the Hawaiian island of Maui in 1948. After 20 years, however, the encroaching ocean began damaging the property and equipment. So in 1971,..................

Click here to continue reading this excellent article at the NIST blog

73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW