WWV Radio Towers: Fort Collins Colorado

Locked out, no admittance, I was forced to shoot crappy video from outside. WWV is a short wave radio station that broadcasts around a 2,000 mile radius. The US government (National Bureau Of Standards) has run the station with an atomic clock (the world's best known time keeper) for many years so that the exact time and date is known just by tuning in. When I was a kid, my Dad used to turn up one of his several short wave radios loud enough to hear all over the house; then he would set all the clocks and watches in the house; this usually happened every month or two. When I moved out on my own, I did the same thing with the radio in this clip. This is the exact same signal that is received by any of those "atomic" watches and clocks that set themselves automatically. Your computer has a tiny program that runs in the background that logs onto the same station and sets your clock; caller ID time stamps are synced to the same clock/radio station. Short wave is like AM with even more noise and crappy sound, however, you can hear stations worldwide depending upon weather and sunspot activity.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• WWV
• Atomic
• Clock
• Radio
• Towers

[philglassfan]

What's with the stupid sound effects?

[scotsmanlerxt]

@philglassfan I'm stupid and have tourettes?

[letseeitplease]

thanks for posting your video, i enjoyed it, i have listened to wwv since the 60s, do you know who funds wwv? is it owned by the us gov? just curious, thanks

[scotsmanlerxt]

@letseeitplease The last time I listened, WWV was connected to the National Bureau Of Standards which is a US Government entity if I'm not mistaken. Here is a link if you are curious.

nist.gov/physlab/div847/

[hillbillyprofane]

Thanks for posting this, really interesting! I'm not sure why, but WWV scares me a little bit. Never been able to figure that one out!

[scotsmanlerxt]

I suspect any large scale radio setup would remind people (myself included) of movies depicting "evil" through the use of them. I was a little bit scared by tall towers at night when I was a kid; it was the mystery that bothered me at the time. Why no signs or indications what the tower was for? Why out in the middle of nowhere? So many unanswered questions left my active imagination moving in too many directions. Then there are those spy number stations on shortwave, but that's another thing.

[gerby76]

My wife's from Ft Collins so we drove by there visiting family. Took some photos. We showed the photos to a friend who visited and found this video only to BUST up laughing for minutes ;-) PS I got laid this morning

[steadfastcoward]

Dog : ) Been DIY for six years. By the way, if you sit listening long enough, it's like you can almost remove the morphine drip it's so soothing, Rescue the health system, listen.

[Radioblade1]

Does anyone remember (during the 60s) when wwv transmitted an unusual sound "da-diddita-da-diddita?" As a kid I thought it was a satellite. I have tried to find recordings of this with no luck.

[jackwolf131]

ok, thanks for telling me

[MaryStewart]

cool! love to get wwv during the day!

[bradmann85]

sometimes i can get a strong signal here in south central texas just as strong as you have it on a pocket radio as long as im outside.

[irishpride527]

Cool vid. I used to set my receiver's clock with WWV before the radio got zapped by a faulty adapter I plugged it into. :-( Btw, if you're a geek, then that makes me one, too, and I'm proud of it! Geeks/SWLs, past and present - UNITE!!

[kjillian1]

Cool geek trip. I would love to go past WWV but have only been as close as Denver. Someday. :-)

[TheBroadcastEngineer]

Way cool, thanks for the post !

[iluvdx60]

HOW ABOUT VIDEOS ON THE REMOTE FCC SITES?ISN'T FOR EXAMPLE GRAND ISLAND REMOTE CONTROLLED NOW?

[stybarrow]

i have heard the US government has been building / locating lots of facilities between Denver and Boulder (including the airport, of course).

[Neillil411]

Hey dude! They broadcast "Time if day, standard time interval, and other related information" on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20MHZ. Wow! 15mhz skips through the atmosphere all the way to Florida where I can hear it.

Ok, I need to get laid now.