[amsat-bb] Fwd: White House wants to eliminate WWV

[Zach Metzinger]

On 09/05/18 07:15, Marcus Sutliff wrote:
> That is a valid question to ask when someone it telling you to act on
> something.  I'm struggling to understand why it still justifies spending x
> million per year.  I set my clocks from GPS.  I get propagation information
> by listening for beacons, PSKReporter, Tamitha Skov,  NASA... there is an
> endless list (most produced for free) so I don't understand why it is still
> relevant at this cost of several millions per year. It comes across as
> someone arguing to keep horse stables open in New York City when most
> horses have been replaced by Fords.
> 
> Can we see a list of technical reasons it is worthy of this expense and
> reasons it is not worthy of this expense?

Hello Marcus,

GPS doesn't work well/at all in-doors due to the ~1.5 GHz L1 frequency 
that it uses.

WWVB, at 60 kHz, which isn't included in this shutdown proposal, 
contains ASK (Amplitude Shift Keyed) time and date information used to 
set "radio-atomic" clocks and can be received in nearly all of the 
CONUS. It also serves as a stable frequency reference.

Be careful with "free" services. You'll likely get what you pay for. A 
few million per year spread across everyone's tax bill to provide a 
stable, calibrated time and frequency reference seems like a good idea 
to me. Much better than some of the other uses of money that our 
government has invented.

--- Zach
N0ZGO