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Thursday, March 28, 2019

DOD Provisional Timeslot on WWV and WWVH.

WWV is going into the military broadcast business (sorta)? We found below this morning on the US Army MARS Facebook Page:

From April 20 to 3 May, WWV and WWVH will broadcast a DOD message at 10 minutes past the hour on WWV and at 50 minutes past the hour on WWVH. This April-May time period coincides with the Vital Connection interoperability exercise being held in Wisconsin. Future timeslots will coincide with the Vital Connection exercise Ohio in June; DOD COMEX 19-3 in Aug and the DOD COMEX 19-4 in Oct.

Following the proof of concept this year, we anticipate that the DOD broadcast time slot will become year-round full time. As mentioned above future broadcast may occur prior to selected DOD and Northcom exercises.

This broadcast timeslot will voice announce upcoming exercises and how the amateur radio community can become involved in various exercises. To begin, the broadcast messages will likely be static...future exercises we hope to be able to update the broadcast throughout the exercise as notional conditions change.

The broadcast message will ask listeners to provide reception reports and feedback to a specified URL.

Tune into WWV/H on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz and submit a reception report and requested feedback.

And in a related WWV event this report in a recent ARRL Newsletter:

WWV Centennial Special Event Will Use WW0WWV

With its funding secure for another year, WWV, the world's oldest continuously operating radio station, will have extra reason to celebrate its centennial this fall. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club (NCARC) have teamed up to organize 100th-anniversary events. A memorandum of understanding is pending. The WWV Committee has announced that the call sign WW0WWV was granted on February 23 to the WWV Amateur Radio Club for use during the Amateur Radio special event, planned to run September 28 - October 2, with operators on the air around the clock. NCARC predicts the effort will require "hundreds" of volunteer operators.

"The 100th anniversary is an occasion to celebrate radio and our understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum, and an opportunity to help people everywhere appreciate what radio does in their everyday lives," said Dave Swartz, WODAS, who has been spearheading the on-the-air event.

The WWV Committee met on February 22, with representatives of NCARC and NIST on hand, to further firm up plans for the centennial celebratory events. Although the US government cannot fund any Amateur Radio special event expenses, club members will be allowed to use a 15-acre parcel on WWV property, Swartz has explained. The operating site lies outside the security fence.

For its part, NIST will focus on plans for an October 1 recognition ceremony and an open house at the radio station north of Fort Collins.