WWV: December 8, 1991

WWV Station sign at WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Myke Dodge Weiskopf, who shares the following recording and notes:

BROADCASTER: WWV

DATE OF RECORDING: December 08, 1991

STARTING TIME: 0218

FREQUENCY: 5000 kHz

RECEPTION LOCATION: Rockford, Illinois, USA

RECEIVER AND ANTENNA: Unidentified boombox

NOTES:

NIST Radio Station WWV as it sounded on 8 December 1991 at 0218 UTC.

Due to the high cost of maintaining the aging drum-based voice announcement machines, NIST implemented a digital voice announcement system in 1991. The new male voice, belonging to Eric Smith, started at WWV on 13 August. The voice of WWVH belonged to Johanna Stahl. The voices were sorely lacking in high EQ at first, but were sharpened with an audio filter on 27 August. The modification did not help, and after months of equipment failures and complaints about the poor quality, NIST retired both voices on 11 August 1992.

An excerpted version of this recording is found on "At the Tone: A Little History of NIST Radio Stations WWV & WWVH." This unedited version is being shared by special arrangement for the Shortwave Archive.