from the archives collection of the QSL Report column in Monitoring Times
all content is under copyright by Teak Publishing and will be strictly enforced
It's about time ...QSLing Standard Time & Frequency stations
Next time you're band scanning, tune around 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 kHz, and you'll hear continuous transmissions of 'beeps' or 'pips' every second, with the time announced in UTC at every minute.
Known in the hobby as Time Signals or an STF, these stations are WWV from Ft. Collins, Colorado and WWVH in Kauai, Hawaii. Many listeners use STFs for checking the performance of their equipment and are invaluable as a means to synchronize station clocks to UTC. Dxers also use them to check propagation and reception paths or quality, and the receiver‛s frequency accuracy.
While WWV and WWVH broadcast 24 hours a day, other world time stations may broadcast for a few hours or only on certain days of the week. Additional world time stations broadcast their identifications in morse-code, while others may be heard as only a 'beep' or 'pip' signal. CHU in Ottawa, Canada, uses continuous voice transmissions in English and French to identify their time signal transmissions. Additional stations are located in Argentina, Belarus, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and Venezuela.
Both U.S. stations and Canada's CHU are easy to verify. Two mint stamps will assist WWV/ WWVH stations, while CHU will accept mint Canadian stamps or one IRC. Most foreign stations will generally accept IRCs or mint stamps from their country.
For station frequencies and broadcasting hours, refer to the 2008 edition of World Radio TV Handbook.
Amateur Radio
Luxembourg LX1KC, 14 MHz CW. Full data verification card. Received in two months for follow up report to another LX operator, along with his card. Received in 28 years ...a new record for me! QSL address: LX1KC, C. Kieffer, 39 Route de Reisdorf, L-3611 Beaufort, Luxembourg. (John Wilkins, CO)
Russia RA3RCL, 10 meter SSB. Full data color card. Received in 338 days via ARRL bureau. Website: http://www.arrl.org/ . (L Van Horn)
Australia
ABC-Northern Territory Service, VL8T-Tennant Creek 4910 kHz. Verification on station letterhead, plus ABC NT stickers. Received in one month for an English report. Administrative Center for the Northern Territory SW Service, Box 9994, GPO Darwin, NT 0801 Australia. Address via World QSL Book. (Peter Ng, Malaysia)
Clandestine
SW Radio Africa. Electronic QSL from Les Mommsen-Technical Manager, including notation "transmitter location restricted for security reasons." Received in five months with apology for delay. Email: les@swradioafrica.com Station address: SW Radio Africa Ltd., P.O. Box 243 Borehamwood, Herts WD6 4WA, United Kingdom. (Ron Howard, CA) SW Radio Africa is an independent station relayed via various locations, often categorized as a quasi-clandestine. Programming opposes the Mugabe government and run by exiled Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom. Streaming/on-demand audio http://www.swradioafrica.com/
Ireland
RTÉ Radio 1, 17,860/ 17,710 kHz. Full data verification on station letterhead, signed by Mrs. Bernie Pope-Network Support. Received in 17 days for an English report to info@rte.ie for special broadcast of Hurling Games. Station address: RTÉNL, Nutley Building, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland. (Alokesh Gupta, India) Website: http://www.rte.ie/ Email: Bernie.pope@rte.ie Streaming audio of RTÉ Radio 1, FM services, TV video and Podcast: http://www.rte.ie/radio/index.html .
Medium Wave
CJOR, 1240 kHz AM. Verification letter signed by Jeremy McGoran. Received in 25 days for a CD report and $2.00 US. Station address: 33 Carmi Avenue, Penticton, BC Canada V2A 3G6. (Patrick Martin, OR)
WCXH, 780 kHz AM. Verification card signed by Allan H. Weiner. Received in ten days for tentative CD report, od morse code from DX Test. Station address: 28 Houlton Road, Presque Isle, ME 04769 USA. (Martin) Very pleased with this one, my second Maine verified from Oregon!
Standard Time & Frequency Station
RWM, 14, 996 kHz. Moscow, Russia. Full data purple clock verification card. Received in 19 years and one month. This holds the record for me, for a 1988 reception after at least five follow up reports. Also received a personal reply in Russian Cyrillic on station letterhead. Very pleased with this reply, as RWM was the only STS station not verified. Station address: Russian State Time and Frequency Service, Institute of Metrology for Time and Space (IMVP) FGUP, VNIIFTRI, Moscow Region, Mendeleevo 141570, Russia. (Jim Pogue, TN) Address via World QSL Book.
WWV, 10,000 kHz. Full data WWV Native American sketch card unsigned, plus station brochure. Received in 26 days for an English report and two mint stamps. Station address: NIST Radio Station WWV, 200 East County Road # 58, Ft. Collins, CO 80524 USA. (Brian Bagwell, St Louis, MO) Website: http://tf.nist.gov/
WWVH 15,000 kHz. Full data WWVH Hawaiian sketch card unsigned. Received in 42 days for an English report and two mint stamps. Station address: U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST Radio Station WWVH, P.O. Box 417, Kekaha, HI 96752-0417 USA (R.S. Evans, Hobbs, NM) Website: http://tf.nist.gov/ .
Thailand
BBC Asia Relay Station, 5980 kHz. Full data color Thailand transmitter photo card unsigned. Received in 22 days for an English report, $2.00 US and souvenir postcard of Ka'anapali Beach. Transmitter site via Passport 2008. "Thank you for your wonderful book (World QSL Book), as it helped me get a QSL from the BBC. I got the addressing information from your book." (World QSL Book) Station address: Mr. Eakkalak K., BBC Asia Relay Station, P.O. Box 20, Muang District, Nakhon Sawan 6000, Thailand. (Michael Bornstein, CA) Thank you for the kind comments. I continue to receive many success stories! GVH
Utility
Non-Directional Beacons: NM 278 kHz. Matagami, Quebec, Canada. Full data prepared card returned as verified by Gestionnaire-Manager. Received in 44 days for a utility report and $1.00 US. Card verified as 500 watts. Station address: Nav Canada, C.P. 340, Val d'Or, Quebec J9P 4P4 Canada. (Pogue)
FS 245 kHz. Rokky NDB - Sioux Falls, SD. Full data prepared card returned as verified by Michael Marnach-Airport Manager. Received in seven days for a SASE. Card noted as question mark for beacon power, though RNA list 100 watts. Station address: Joe Foss Field Airport, 2801 Jaycee Lane, Sioux Falls, SD 57104 USA. (Pogue).
(Gayle Van Horn/Editor QSL Report)
all content is under copyright by Teak Publishing and will be strictly enforced
It's about time ...QSLing Standard Time & Frequency stations
Next time you're band scanning, tune around 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 kHz, and you'll hear continuous transmissions of 'beeps' or 'pips' every second, with the time announced in UTC at every minute.
Known in the hobby as Time Signals or an STF, these stations are WWV from Ft. Collins, Colorado and WWVH in Kauai, Hawaii. Many listeners use STFs for checking the performance of their equipment and are invaluable as a means to synchronize station clocks to UTC. Dxers also use them to check propagation and reception paths or quality, and the receiver‛s frequency accuracy.
While WWV and WWVH broadcast 24 hours a day, other world time stations may broadcast for a few hours or only on certain days of the week. Additional world time stations broadcast their identifications in morse-code, while others may be heard as only a 'beep' or 'pip' signal. CHU in Ottawa, Canada, uses continuous voice transmissions in English and French to identify their time signal transmissions. Additional stations are located in Argentina, Belarus, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and Venezuela.
Both U.S. stations and Canada's CHU are easy to verify. Two mint stamps will assist WWV/ WWVH stations, while CHU will accept mint Canadian stamps or one IRC. Most foreign stations will generally accept IRCs or mint stamps from their country.
For station frequencies and broadcasting hours, refer to the 2008 edition of World Radio TV Handbook.
Amateur Radio
Luxembourg LX1KC, 14 MHz CW. Full data verification card. Received in two months for follow up report to another LX operator, along with his card. Received in 28 years ...a new record for me! QSL address: LX1KC, C. Kieffer, 39 Route de Reisdorf, L-3611 Beaufort, Luxembourg. (John Wilkins, CO)
Russia RA3RCL, 10 meter SSB. Full data color card. Received in 338 days via ARRL bureau. Website: http://www.arrl.org/ . (L Van Horn)
Australia
ABC-Northern Territory Service, VL8T-Tennant Creek 4910 kHz. Verification on station letterhead, plus ABC NT stickers. Received in one month for an English report. Administrative Center for the Northern Territory SW Service, Box 9994, GPO Darwin, NT 0801 Australia. Address via World QSL Book. (Peter Ng, Malaysia)
Clandestine
SW Radio Africa. Electronic QSL from Les Mommsen-Technical Manager, including notation "transmitter location restricted for security reasons." Received in five months with apology for delay. Email: les@swradioafrica.com Station address: SW Radio Africa Ltd., P.O. Box 243 Borehamwood, Herts WD6 4WA, United Kingdom. (Ron Howard, CA) SW Radio Africa is an independent station relayed via various locations, often categorized as a quasi-clandestine. Programming opposes the Mugabe government and run by exiled Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom. Streaming/on-demand audio http://www.swradioafrica.com/
Ireland
RTÉ Radio 1, 17,860/ 17,710 kHz. Full data verification on station letterhead, signed by Mrs. Bernie Pope-Network Support. Received in 17 days for an English report to info@rte.ie for special broadcast of Hurling Games. Station address: RTÉNL, Nutley Building, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland. (Alokesh Gupta, India) Website: http://www.rte.ie/ Email: Bernie.pope@rte.ie Streaming audio of RTÉ Radio 1, FM services, TV video and Podcast: http://www.rte.ie/radio/index.html .
Medium Wave
CJOR, 1240 kHz AM. Verification letter signed by Jeremy McGoran. Received in 25 days for a CD report and $2.00 US. Station address: 33 Carmi Avenue, Penticton, BC Canada V2A 3G6. (Patrick Martin, OR)
WCXH, 780 kHz AM. Verification card signed by Allan H. Weiner. Received in ten days for tentative CD report, od morse code from DX Test. Station address: 28 Houlton Road, Presque Isle, ME 04769 USA. (Martin) Very pleased with this one, my second Maine verified from Oregon!
Standard Time & Frequency Station
RWM, 14, 996 kHz. Moscow, Russia. Full data purple clock verification card. Received in 19 years and one month. This holds the record for me, for a 1988 reception after at least five follow up reports. Also received a personal reply in Russian Cyrillic on station letterhead. Very pleased with this reply, as RWM was the only STS station not verified. Station address: Russian State Time and Frequency Service, Institute of Metrology for Time and Space (IMVP) FGUP, VNIIFTRI, Moscow Region, Mendeleevo 141570, Russia. (Jim Pogue, TN) Address via World QSL Book.
WWV, 10,000 kHz. Full data WWV Native American sketch card unsigned, plus station brochure. Received in 26 days for an English report and two mint stamps. Station address: NIST Radio Station WWV, 200 East County Road # 58, Ft. Collins, CO 80524 USA. (Brian Bagwell, St Louis, MO) Website: http://tf.nist.gov/WWVH 15,000 kHz. Full data WWVH Hawaiian sketch card unsigned. Received in 42 days for an English report and two mint stamps. Station address: U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST Radio Station WWVH, P.O. Box 417, Kekaha, HI 96752-0417 USA (R.S. Evans, Hobbs, NM) Website: http://tf.nist.gov/ .
Thailand
BBC Asia Relay Station, 5980 kHz. Full data color Thailand transmitter photo card unsigned. Received in 22 days for an English report, $2.00 US and souvenir postcard of Ka'anapali Beach. Transmitter site via Passport 2008. "Thank you for your wonderful book (World QSL Book), as it helped me get a QSL from the BBC. I got the addressing information from your book." (World QSL Book) Station address: Mr. Eakkalak K., BBC Asia Relay Station, P.O. Box 20, Muang District, Nakhon Sawan 6000, Thailand. (Michael Bornstein, CA) Thank you for the kind comments. I continue to receive many success stories! GVH
Utility
Non-Directional Beacons: NM 278 kHz. Matagami, Quebec, Canada. Full data prepared card returned as verified by Gestionnaire-Manager. Received in 44 days for a utility report and $1.00 US. Card verified as 500 watts. Station address: Nav Canada, C.P. 340, Val d'Or, Quebec J9P 4P4 Canada. (Pogue)
FS 245 kHz. Rokky NDB - Sioux Falls, SD. Full data prepared card returned as verified by Michael Marnach-Airport Manager. Received in seven days for a SASE. Card noted as question mark for beacon power, though RNA list 100 watts. Station address: Joe Foss Field Airport, 2801 Jaycee Lane, Sioux Falls, SD 57104 USA. (Pogue).
(Gayle Van Horn/Editor QSL Report)