NIST Tech Beat for June 25, 2013
Fifty years ago on July 5, 1963, a modest radio station in Fort Collins, Colo., officially went on the airwaves—a landmark event for U.S. industry and the American public.
Operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), WWVB is best known today for broadcasting the time to an estimated 50 million radio-controlled clock radios, wall clocks, wristwatches and other timekeeping devices across the U.S. mainland. But back in 1963, the station had an entirely different audience, broadcasting standard frequencies at the high accuracy needed by satellite and missile programs. The time signal, added two years later, then became a popular means of synchronizing power plants to prevent brownouts, and coordinating analog telephone networks.
“WWVB was one of the original time providers that made an impact on industry,” says John Lowe, leader of NIST’s Time and Frequency Services Group. “The signal’s low frequency helped with stability and propagated very well at night.”
