To get better reception of WWV or WWVH you have use the right frequency for the day. Daytime...typically use a higher frequency such as 10, 15 or 20 mHz. Night time....2.5, 5 or even 10 mHz. This all depends upon the Sun Spot Cycle too.
Also, use the right length antenna. A 2 foot wire isn't going to work too well. I have a Grundig Yacht Boy (shortwave radio....pretty small) and I can get WWV most of the time using the telescoping antenna provided with the radio. I also have a Kenwood TS-130s (transceiver) and can get mostly any of the broadcasts of WWV. (I hold an Extra class amateur radio license). Don't ask for my call sign as a search of it on the internet will tell you my physical address.
We, hams, use WWV to adjust the frequency reading display of our radios. So if your frequency meter is off on the radio it can be recalibrated using WWV tones through what's called "zero-beating".
Forget about the ticks of WWV....no one counts them. Here's what wikipedia says- "The format for the voice announcement is, "At the tone, X hour(s), Y minute(s), Coordinated Universal Time." The announcement is in a male voice and begins 7.5 seconds before the minute tone".
Atomic clocks, like the ones we have on the wall, are great. The only problem I heard, but don't know for a fact, is that about 800 miles away from land they are useless.
Joe, you've got the right idea for local "GMT". We do have it, sort of, it's called Zone time....and there are 24 of them. Of course, your zone time is better than mine!
I think...but am not certain....it was either Shackleton's failed Antarctic expedition or Amundsen's successful South Pole expedition who had a radio receiver aboard in which they could get time signals. It probably was Shackleton's. Obviously if it was Shackleton's, the radio "went down with the ship" and they didn't carry it with them during their escape from the ice. I do know that Frank Worsley, after they had landed on Elephant island, paced up and down the rocky beach checking his chronometer. I suspect, since they knew the latitude and longitude of their position fairly well, he could take a Sun sight and correct the chronometer accordingly.
I've tried to get other time signals from supposed other countries "time" stations but haven't gotten a single one. CHU (Canada) has driven me insane for over 40 years. Since China is really the "rising star" so to speak of countries I would expect that they have a time broadcast. However, after locating the frequency(s) they're supposedly transmitting on I've never heard them once.
If some amateur radio operator took over the transmission of time signals it frankly wouldn't be difficult. In CN we work with what's called UT1 which can be off by plus or minus 1 second. Big deal.
Best wishes shipmates,
Craig
Also, use the right length antenna. A 2 foot wire isn't going to work too well. I have a Grundig Yacht Boy (shortwave radio....pretty small) and I can get WWV most of the time using the telescoping antenna provided with the radio. I also have a Kenwood TS-130s (transceiver) and can get mostly any of the broadcasts of WWV. (I hold an Extra class amateur radio license). Don't ask for my call sign as a search of it on the internet will tell you my physical address.
We, hams, use WWV to adjust the frequency reading display of our radios. So if your frequency meter is off on the radio it can be recalibrated using WWV tones through what's called "zero-beating".
Forget about the ticks of WWV....no one counts them. Here's what wikipedia says- "The format for the voice announcement is, "At the tone, X hour(s), Y minute(s), Coordinated Universal Time." The announcement is in a male voice and begins 7.5 seconds before the minute tone".
Atomic clocks, like the ones we have on the wall, are great. The only problem I heard, but don't know for a fact, is that about 800 miles away from land they are useless.
Joe, you've got the right idea for local "GMT". We do have it, sort of, it's called Zone time....and there are 24 of them. Of course, your zone time is better than mine!
I think...but am not certain....it was either Shackleton's failed Antarctic expedition or Amundsen's successful South Pole expedition who had a radio receiver aboard in which they could get time signals. It probably was Shackleton's. Obviously if it was Shackleton's, the radio "went down with the ship" and they didn't carry it with them during their escape from the ice. I do know that Frank Worsley, after they had landed on Elephant island, paced up and down the rocky beach checking his chronometer. I suspect, since they knew the latitude and longitude of their position fairly well, he could take a Sun sight and correct the chronometer accordingly.
I've tried to get other time signals from supposed other countries "time" stations but haven't gotten a single one. CHU (Canada) has driven me insane for over 40 years. Since China is really the "rising star" so to speak of countries I would expect that they have a time broadcast. However, after locating the frequency(s) they're supposedly transmitting on I've never heard them once.
If some amateur radio operator took over the transmission of time signals it frankly wouldn't be difficult. In CN we work with what's called UT1 which can be off by plus or minus 1 second. Big deal.
Best wishes shipmates,
Craig