RadioBanter - View Single Post - Disappearance of Short Wave Time Signals at 5, 10, 15, 20kHz

Michael Black[_2_] · June 18th 16, 08:41 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

On Sat, 18 Jun 2016, wrote:

Disappearance of Short Wave Time Signals at 5, 10, 15, 20kHz

Thirty years ago, that ticking atomic clock could be picked
up on any shortwave receiver, whether one paid $40 or
$400 for it, or even on the boom-boxes of that day, of
which the majority featured at least SW1 & SW2. Starting
in the 1990s, it became increasingly more difficult to tune
them in, even with a dedicated shortwave radio. They'd
come in on only certain of those frequencies, or only at
certain times of day.

Now, they are all but inaudible except for once in a while,
every other day, on one frequency or another. All I hear at
those frequencies is loud static or noise.

What's going on?? I actually use the signals to adjust 'dumb'
clocks and watches(windup ones or basic battery ones).

It helps if you tune in the right frequencies. WWV (and WWVH in Hawaii)
are on 5, 10, 15 and 20MHz, not KHz, and I think WWV is back on 25MHz too
after some decades of absence.

They never came in "all the time", which was a good thing. You could flip
to another frequency and get the time, but if you lived far enough from
the transmitter site in Boulder Colorado, it would give a mild indication
of propagation, if you didn't hear them conditions were bad, if you did,
then the given frequency range was probably open.

One thing that's happened is that the average house has way more
electronis now than in 1971, and mroe important, it's mostly digital and
usually the power supplies are switching supplies. That all adds up to a
lot of noise, which the signal has to overcome. Since many a shortwave
radio is now portable, complete with whip antenna, most people will start
without some outdoor antenna while decades ago most would start with one.
So you pick up the noise first.

Put the radio near the window, the time signals will come in as well as
ever. Because you're getting away from all the inside noise, and closer
to the signal source, especially if the home is shielded due to a metal
frame or a metal roof.

Michael