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2019 Budget includes request to shutdown WWV and WWVH
Interesting as I recall (in another life) our Nuclear forces where depended on these time hacks to calibrate their Air, Land and Sea nuclear mission computers..but that was way before sat. communications
Perfect! If this goes through, you might as well throw away your sextants and kiss off any chance for an accurate fix unless you are carrying around a thousand dollar chronometer. This will bode the end of the true independent seafaring adventurer.
This is exactly the wrong place to be saving taxpayer dollars. Sign the petition.
I'd really hate to see WWV and WWVH go by the wayside. They not only gave time ticks for those of us who relied on a sextant but weather reports of large storms. We used WWVH weather information to avoid a hurricane once. Unless you go with a satellite or subscribe to a HF weather service, they are the only no cost way to find out about significant weather. This was back in the day but a Sony shortwave radio tuned to WWVH got us all the information to sail SoPac and the price was right.
One could always just tune in CHU instead. The US isn't a monopoly on time signals.
I doubt even 1% of cruisers have a sextant, and of those that do, I doubt that 10% of them could get even a rough fix. Don't bother telling me how you are different - I believe you.
If the GPS system goes down, a fix at sea will be the least of everyone's problems. Only a fool would try to get near land then.
Besides, if the GPS system goes down, the time feed to WWV/WWVH goes with it.
If the GPS system goes down, the ability to access and broadcast major weather reports goes with it. In fact, the ability to even generate weather forecasts and reports go with it.
I don't think most people understand how far GPS is integrated in everything we do on earth. The internet and almost all other forms of mass communication fail without GPS. If the cause of GPS failure is a massive solar storm or EMP, then even basic HF radio and propagation goes down too.
People understandably have historic remembrances of the time when these radio stations were important, but the reality is that they are not important today. If one is cruising around today with weather reports from WWVH being their only strategy (and hope) to avoid hurricanes, then one has a preparation issue.
BTW, I will certainly miss WWV/WWVH (they are my most listened to stations since I access them to roughly gauge propagation every time I tune up), but I can't reasonably justify their existence.
..don't forget all those time sync dependent atomic clocks and watches..
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