[time-nuts] Loss of NIST transmitters at Colorado and Hawaii

[Tim Shoppa]

While consumer WWVB clocks are widespread today, almost all (or all) professional clock displays have shifted to NTP over copper or over sometimes WIFI in the past decade.

WWVB or WWV, without an external antenna, was never a good choice for a clock in a steel building to begin with. 30 years ago you would put an HF or GOES antenna on the roof. As the paperwork for putting up an antenna has multiplied exponentially and Ethernet has become completely and totally ubiquitous in commercial buildings, it becomes a no brainer to choose a POE NTP clock display.

While NTP works super well for locations with 120VAC or POE power, it is not so obvious for a wallclock that is traditionally powered by a battery that only has to be changed every few years. For battery powered wallclocks in wood buiildings WWVB is still a great solution maybe even the only solution. But I could imagine a consumer product that just turned on its WIFI for a minute each day to resync and was battery powered.

Tim N3QE

> On Aug 13, 2018, at 12:28 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist <richard at karlquist.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On 8/12/2018 6:55 PM, John C. Westmoreland, P.E. wrote:
>> I hope this does not happen.  I get questions from new Hams that ask, 'How
>> can I check my antenna easily?' - the quick reply is to check for WWV on
>> 2.5, 5,0, 10.0, 15.0 and 20.0 MHz.
> 
> W1AW is far more useful to check ham antennas, since it broadcasts
> on ham bands, so that isn't a useful argument.
> 
> OTOH, the argument that it is OK to obsolete millions of "atomic"
> clocks because of NTP is also weak.  The present WWVB solution
> is "just right" for the problem; the vast majority of users
> don't need more accuracy.
> 
> Rick N6RK
> 
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