NIST WWV and Canada’s CHU

I have been working on the “long-wire” antenna that’s only about 10′ above the ground, and buried in the oleander hedge. It’s 110′ long, and fed about 10′ from one end. There’s an SGS tuner out there, but it’s currently not active, so it’s kind of hit and miss.

I programmed in the Central East Pacific HF aviation channels, but haven’t heard anything yet on them. With an antenna like this, I think I’m asking a lot.

I also programmed in all the WWV/WWVH/CHU time broadcast frequencies, more as a sounder than anything else. If I can hear one or more of these, that gives me a very rough idea of how well the antenna is working.

Tonight, I can hear CHU (Ottawa, I think) on 3330 kHz, at about -92 dBm. WWV (male voice, so Fort Collins) is running about -71 dBm on 2500 kHz, -93 dBm on 5000 kHz. Don’t hear a darned thing on 10000 kHz. But it is 4 hours after local sunset.

And, while you were asking “what’s the format for the beeps and boops on WWV?” I grabbed this handy-dandy quick guide from their site.

So now you know.

Hey – I think I might just be hearing WWVH (woman’s voice) on 10000 kHz. But the path is really poor.

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