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Canada’s CHU time station to close

M

Mediafrog+

The shortwave transmissions of Canada’s time station CHU on 3330, 7850 and 14670 kHz will end on June 22, 2026. The history of the station goes back to 1923. Another nail in the shortwave coffin.

NRC shortwave station broadcasts (CHU) - National Research Council Canada

Time accuracy superior to telephone time accuracy is available throughout Canada and in many other parts of the world by means of NRC's radio time signals broadcast continuously from short wave radio station CHU. If corrections are made for the propagation delay from CHU to the user, and for...
nrc.canada.ca nrc.canada.ca

CHU (radio station) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
I am P!$$ed. 3330 was one of the first radio stations I ever DXed, concurrent with the usual AM dial triumphs for someone my age.

(Spoke with a cousin my age in Montreal just before. He's sorta put out, too. He remembers CHU. But DX isn't his metier. Nor had numismatism been, but he's going nuts on A-Unc Canadian pennies now.)

What was the cause of this hundred-year old deletion? WWV has better ratings? Or maybe WWV indeed is next, with short-wave consultant Kari Lake reassigned with a salary at twice their budget to shut them down too?
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
I am P!$$ed. 3330 was one of the first radio stations I ever DXed, concurrent with the usual AM dial triumphs for someone my age.

(Spoke with a cousin my age in Montreal just before. He's sorta put out, too. He remembers CHU. But DX isn't his metier. Nor had numismatism been, but he's going nuts on A-Unc Canadian pennies now.)

What was the cause of this hundred-year old deletion? WWV has better ratings? Or maybe WWV indeed is next, with short-wave consultant Kari Lake reassigned with a salary at twice their budget to shut them down too?
Click to expand...

old outdated technology that only a few radio geeks listened to
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
old outdated technology that only a few radio geeks listened to
Click to expand...

In general I agree about shortwave being outdated technology, but I think the WWV and CHU time stations are useful exceptions.

CHU is part of Canada's well-funded and well-regarded National Research Council which exists to do things like being the standard bearer of accurate time for the country. While I'm sure there is some cost in running the stations, the whole infrastructure is already in place and the station basically runs itself, so it's hard to see the argument for shutting it down to save what is probably a pretty insignificant expense in the big picture.

RadioWorld published a nice piece on the station a few years ago:
www.radioworld.com

CHU, Canada’s Time Station - Radio World

A look inside Canada’s own automated time station.
www.radioworld.com www.radioworld.com
 
Theater of My Mind said:
In general I agree about shortwave being outdated technology, but I think the WWV and CHU time stations are useful exceptions.

CHU is part of Canada's well-funded and well-regarded National Research Council which exists to do things like being the standard bearer of accurate time for the country. While I'm sure there is some cost in running the stations, the whole infrastructure is already in place and the station basically runs itself, so it's hard to see the argument for shutting it down to save what is probably a pretty insignificant expense in the big picture.

RadioWorld published a nice piece on the station a few years ago:
www.radioworld.com

CHU, Canada’s Time Station - Radio World

A look inside Canada’s own automated time station.
www.radioworld.com www.radioworld.com
Click to expand...

the power bill with 3 TX's runnign several KWs... the lease? (im assuming a lease, they said its out in a farmers field) and the safe time.

so not cheap but not superr expensive.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
the power bill with 3 TX's runnign several KWs... the lease? (im assuming a lease, they said its out in a farmers field) and the safe time.

so not cheap but not superr expensive.
Click to expand...
When you're posting like you're trying to set some kind of record for most posts in a day, you make some assumptions that are wrong.

This is one of them. The CHU site is (and has been for many decades) on land that's part of a government OWNED experimental farm on the outskirts of Ottawa.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
old outdated technology that only a few radio geeks listened to
Click to expand...
Just as a reminder to ALL contributors to this board: posts like this are not valuable additions to the dialogue here.

Please just take a second before you rush to the "reply" button and ask: am I adding something new and interesting to the conversation, or just complaining for the sake of my own ego?

There is not and will never be a "most posts award" here. And in this case, the complaint isn't just whiny, it's wrong.

In a country as vast as Canada, we don't KNOW without some better research who exactly was using the CHU services, and where, and for what, and whether propagation from WWV will be enough to replace those uses.

Are there more modern ways of delivering accurate time and frequency information? Of course. But are those services available in a village in Nunavut or at a remote camp in Western Ontario? I don't know the answer to that. And if they're not, then a universal one-to-everyone distribution technology like shortwave may not be "outdated" at all.

It's unlikely indeed that whoever has still been using CHU is a "radio geek," in any event, because it's a service, not a radio station that anyone would spend time listening to.

But even if it were, this community is meant to include both "radio geeks" and broadcasting professionals, and it would be awfully nice if certain of the professionals here were better about acting like it.

TL;DR: come here to share the things you know and the unique ideas you have to offer. Don't come here just to slam others. It's unacceptable and unwelcome.
 
fybush said:
Just as a reminder to ALL contributors to this board: posts like this are not valuable additions to the dialogue here.

Please just take a second before you rush to the "reply" button and ask: am I adding something new and interesting to the conversation, or just complaining for the sake of my own ego?

There is not and will never be a "most posts award" here. And in this case, the complaint isn't just whiny, it's wrong.

In a country as vast as Canada, we don't KNOW without some better research who exactly was using the CHU services, and where, and for what, and whether propagation from WWV will be enough to replace those uses.

Are there more modern ways of delivering accurate time and frequency information? Of course. But are those services available in a village in Nunavut or at a remote camp in Western Ontario? I don't know the answer to that. And if they're not, then a universal one-to-everyone distribution technology like shortwave may not be "outdated" at all.

It's unlikely indeed that whoever has still been using CHU is a "radio geek," in any event, because it's a service, not a radio station that anyone would spend time listening to.

But even if it were, this community is meant to include both "radio geeks" and broadcasting professionals, and it would be awfully nice if certain of the professionals here were better about acting like it.

TL;DR: come here to share the things you know and the unique ideas you have to offer. Don't come here just to slam others. It's unacceptable and unwelcome.
Click to expand...
As a ham myself, I recognize how beneficial stations like CHU and WWV are. I'm sure there will be a day when WWV/WWVH/WWVB will go away too.

Any 'cost savings' by removing services like these are minimal at best.
 
fybush said:
Are there more modern ways of delivering accurate time and frequency information? Of course. But are those services available in a village in Nunavut or at a remote camp in Western Ontario? I don't know the answer to that. And if they're not, then a universal one-to-everyone distribution technology like shortwave may not be "outdated" at all.
Click to expand...
However we should note that for decades CBC had its “Northern Service” on shortwave, which was a mix of the main CBC radio network along with programming in various indigenous languages. That service was closed in November 2012, just a few weeks after the demise of Radio Canada International on SW. A network of low power FM stations was its replacement. Perhaps shortwave is not as important in the sparsely populated area of Canada as it used to be.
 


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