[BC] NIST Radio Station In Hawaii Gets Antenna Makeover

[Blaine Thompson]

NIST Radio Station In Hawaii Gets Antenna Makeover

1/28/2008

Gaithersburg, MD -- Radio station WWVH in Hawaii, operated since 1948 by
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to broadcast
time, frequency and other announcements, recently powered up innovative
replacement antennas.

In a seven-year project to adopt a technology used on Navy ships, NIST has
installed new antennas encased in fiberglass rather than traditional steel
supports, to resist corrosion from the salty ocean air. The fiberglass
design will reduce maintenance and repair costs. The new design also
enables the flexible, lightweight antennas to be easily lowered to the
ground for maintenance, reducing safety hazards to staff who previously
had to climb the towers, which are up to 98 feet tall. The improved
antennas should reduce signal downtime for WWVH users.

>From its location on the island of Kauai, WWVH broadcasts on four
different frequencies. Each frequency requires a different antenna;
including backups, the station has a total of eight antennas, seven of
which are made of fiberglass. NIST erected and powered up the last
fiberglass replacement antenna in October 2007. NIST staff believe the
project is the first demonstration of high-powered, high-frequency
fiberglass antennas on land.

Broadcast Information: NIST radio station WWVH broadcasts time and
frequency information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The announcer states
the time in hours and minutes every minute “at the tone.” The
information broadcast by WWVH includes time announcements, standard time
intervals, standard frequencies, geophysical alerts, marine storm
warnings, and Global Positioning System (GPS) status reports.

Service Area: WWVH officially serves the Pacific Ocean and Pacific Rim but
has received confirmation of reception from as far away as South Africa, a
distance of 19,300 km (12,000 miles) from Hawaii. NIST’s two radio
stations, including WWVH in Hawaii and WWV near Fort Collins, Colorado,
essentially cover a large portion of the world between them, although
reception might be difficult in some areas. NIST also operates a third
radio station near Ft. Collins, WWVB, which broadcasts a special code that
automatically sets consumer clocks, watches, and other timepieces to NIST
time.

How to Pick Up WWVH Signals: WWVH operates in the part of the radio
spectrum known as HF (high frequency), commonly called shortwave. The
station broadcasts on four different frequencies: 2.5, 5, 10, and 15
megahertz (MHz). A normal AM/FM radio will not pick up the signals (the
middle of the AM radio dial is about 1 MHz and the middle of the FM radio
dial is about 100 MHz), but there are many inexpensive shortwave receivers
that can pick up the station. Listeners can also hear the WWVH broadcasts
by telephone, by calling 808-335-4363 (a Hawaii phone number that is not
toll free).

Information is broadcast at different frequencies simultaneously because
these signals travel different distances as the weather and conditions of
the ionosphere vary. NIST’s goal is to make at least one frequency
available at all times in the service area.

SOURCE: National Institute of Standards and Technology