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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.


Wavescan N501, September 30, 2018

Possible Closure: Chronohertz Stations WWV & WWVH - 2

Current news reports indicate that the two American chronohertz stations, WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado and WWVH at Kekaha on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, are due to close next year. However, it is also true that significant efforts are underway, as they are spearheaded in the United States, to save these two shortwave stations and have them continue with their regular time and frequency transmissions.

Two weeks back, we presented here in Wavescan the story of the continental station WWV at its six progressive locations in Washington DC, Maryland and Colorado. In our program today, we present the story of the Hawaiian counterpart, WWVH, at its two progressive locations on the islands of Maui and Kauai.

We go back to November 22 in the year 1948, which was then that the first of these two stations was inaugurated. The location was against the coastline near Kihei on the lower west side of the island of Maui. At the time, three transmitters were in use, all at 1 kW, and they radiated the time signal service on exactly 5, 10 and 15 MHz. The antenna systems beamed the signals from this new Hawaiian station towards the west for the benefit of American interests in the Pacific.

Interestingly, back during that era the station in Hawaii was turned off twice each day, around 0700 and 1900 UTC, so that the staff at WWVH could check the transmissions from the mother station, WWV, which was located at Beltsville in Maryland at the time. In this way, the accuracy of the transmissions from WWVH could be checked against the extremely accurate transmissions from WWV. The time distance between the two stations was just 27 milliseconds.

Eight years after its inauguration, the power level at each of the three transmitters in the station was doubled, to an output of 2 kW each, still on the same three channels, 5, 10 and 15 MHz. And then ten years later again, another channel was taken into regular usage, this time 2.5 MHz with a power output of just 1 kW.

However, at about this time it was becoming very evident that a new station would be required. The shoreline at Kihei on Maui had been eroded by 75 ft. and the waters of the Pacific Ocean were encroaching upon the station property itself. In fact, the ocean was now quite close to the main transmitter building, and also to the antenna tower in use for the 15 MHz transmissions. In addition, there was no air conditioning in the transmitter building and corrosion from the tropical salty air was taking its toll on all of the electronic equipment.

During the year 1968, Congress in Washington, DC gave approval for the allocation of funding for a completely new chronohertz station in Hawaii. This new station, with a whole set of new equipment, was installed into a new building located on a 30 acre property in the navy base at Barking Sands at Kokole Point, near Kekaha on the south western edge of the island of Kauai.

A total of seven new transmitters were installed, all made by the AEL Company on Richardson Road in Colmar, Pennsylvania, and all rated at 10 kW, except for just one at 2.5 kW. The old station on Maui was progressively closed down as the new station on Kauai was progressively brought into operation in July 1971.

These new transmitters at the new location operated on the same standard frequencies, with 10 kW each on 5, 10 and 15 MHz. The power output on the low frequency 2.5 MHz channel was just 2.5 kW at the time, though this was increased to 5 kW shortly afterwards.

For each main transmitter, there was also a standby transmitter. In 1983, two of the AEL transmitters were removed and replaced by three Elcom-Bauer transmitters from El Paso in Texas.

On at least two occasions, hurricanes have damaged the WWVH shortwave station. In 1982, Hurricane Iwa cut off the reticulated power supply, and the station operated on emergency power for a whole week. In 1992, Hurricane Iniki caused considerable damage and the station was on the air for several days with just one transmitter, 5 MHz at half power.

Some seventeen years ago (2001), new antenna systems were installed at WWVH, and these are described as fibre glass whip antennas from Valcom in Canada. Each antenna is encased in fibre glass and a copper wire runs the full length of the whip. In this way, corrosion from the salty air is minimized.

Currently, there is a total of eight active transmitters, primary and standby, at WWVH Hawaii. The main transmitters are powered at 10 kW and the standby units at 5 kW, and they can be heard almost worldwide on the four channels, 2.5, 5, 10 and 15 MHz.

The modulation level of the various broadcast services is different for each feature. The BCD time codes are inserted at 25% modulation, the steady tones at 50%, voice announcements at 75%, and the actual time pulses, the ticking of the clock, are at 100% modulation.

Back in the year 1977, it was announced that station WWVH received around 100 visitors each week and 200 reception reports. These days, they still receive many visitors, and they still receive a steady flow of reception reports.

Station WWVH at Kekaha in Hawaii can be heard at least some time each day on at least one channel almost anywhere in the world. They readily verify all genuine reception reports with a three-panel QSL card. You can identify the Hawaiian station by the voice of the announcer, a woman, speaking in English. If you have not yet verified each of their four channels, why not take the opportunity to do so while they are still on the air?

Longwave Station WWVB will continue in service

However, we should mention, that even if shortwave WWV and WWVH are silenced next year due to budget cuts, the longwave station WWVB in Fort Collins, Colorado will still remain in service. It is stated that several million pieces of electronic equipment (clocks, watches, and operational electronics) throughout the continental United States are dependent upon the WWVB time signals for accurate operation.