Tag Archives: CHU

Time Stations from the 1970s Heard in Ontario, Canada — And What You Can Still Hear Today

Time stations in 2026

Today, only a handful of these time signal stations remain on shortwave. Most are listed below.

BPM, Shaanxi Province, China (70 km northeast of Lintong) 2500, 5000, 10000 and 15000 kHz

ID given twice per hour during the 29th and 59th minute. BPM was sent 10 times in CW, then the announcement in Chinese was given twice.

RWM, near Moscow, Russia 4996, 9996 and 14996 kHz

ID’s given twice per hour. During 9th and 39th minute, RWM sent 21 times in CW.

CHU, Ottawa, Ontario Canada 3330 kHz, 7850 and 14670 kHz

ID and time announcement (English/French) in UTC, last 9 seconds of each minute. Scheduled to close June 22, 2026.

WWV, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA 2500, 5000, 10000, 15000, and 20000 kHz

Time announcement (UTC) in English, each minute (male voice). Station ID at :00 and :30 minutes.

WWVH, Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii 2500, 5000, 10000 and 15000 kHz

Time announcement (UTC) in English, each minute (female voice). Station ID at :29 and :59 minutes.

Best to log the remaining ones before their time runs out.

Hackaday Looks Back at Canada’s Legendary CHU Time Station

Canada’s CHU Will Go Silent on Shortwave on June 22, 2026

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CHU’s QSL card used in the 1980s, depicting Sir Sanford Fleming, father of uniform time zones.

I was saddened to learn this morning (from multiple readers) that Canada’s venerable shortwave time station, CHU, may soon fall silent.

According to a notice posted by Canada’s National Research Council, CHU’s shortwave broadcasts are scheduled to end on June 22, 2026.

For many listeners outside of the shortwave community, this may seem like an insignificant footnote in a world dominated by smartphones, GPS timing, and internet-connected everything. But for those of us who have spent decades tuning the HF spectrum, stations like CHU and WWV are far more than the typical gov’t/utility broadcasts.

They are constants.

When I tune to CHU or WWV, I’m not simply checking propagation conditions or listening for a time tick. I’m reconnecting with something deeply familiar—something that has changed very little since the very first days I turned on a shortwave radio as a child. Their steady pulses and calm voice announcements have always been there in the background of the hobby: reliable reference points amid an ever-changing radio landscape.

In many ways, they are the sonic equivalent of “all things held constant” on the shortwaves.

A year ago, we experienced an unexpected loss of both power and mobile internet service in my neighborhood. The timing was unusual enough that the very first thing I did was tune to CHU. The moment I heard its steady, metronomic broadcast, I knew instantly that what I was experiencing wasn’t some larger, global outage—just a freak local loss of both services at the same time.

A WWV Time Code Generator

This news feels especially discouraging, coming so soon after Canada discontinued much of its weather radio service earlier this year. One can’t help but wonder how many legacy public-service broadcasts remain vulnerable simply because they no longer fit modern cost-benefit calculations.

In the United States, we narrowly avoided losing WWV nearly a decade ago when funding for the station was threatened. Thankfully, enough support emerged to keep it alive. I sincerely hope we never lose WWV—or NOAA Weather Radio, for that matter. These systems still serve practical purposes, especially during emergencies and outages, but they also represent something more difficult to quantify: continuity.

Services like CHU also remind us that resilient communications infrastructure still matters. A simple shortwave time station can provide a reliable point of reference completely independent of local internet providers, cellular networks, and modern digital systems. In an age when so much depends on fragile, interconnected infrastructure, there is real value in maintaining at least a few systems that remain accessible with nothing more than a basic radio receiver.

If CHU truly does go silent next month, the shortwaves will feel just a little emptier.

And for many of us, that steady Canadian voice and ticking seconds will be deeply missed.

The 90 metre band – Then and Now

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following guest post:

The 90 metre band – Then and Now

by Dan Greenall

A few decades ago, the 90 metre shortwave broadcast band used to be full of interesting and challenging-to-hear DX signals. In the 1974 edition of The Complete Shortwave Listener’s Handbook, author Hank Bennett reports on what you might expect to hear on these frequencies. There is a copy of this book on the Internet Archive. Here is a link to that specific page.

Also, this sample page from White’s Radio Log in the 1972 Communications World magazine shows a number of stations that could be logged in 90 metre band.

Here are a few links to recordings from my personal collection that have survived through the many years. These were all made between 3200 and 3400 kHz from my listening post in southern Ontario, Canada.

[Note: Click on each broadcast link to open the associated Internet Archive page with more info.]

Radio Bougainville, PNG 1971

Radio Rabaul, PNG 1971

Radio Santiago, Dominican Republic 1971

Radio Libertad, Santiago, Dominican Republic 1971

Action Radio, Guyana Broadcasting Service 1972

Radio Christian Voice, Zambia 1996

Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) 1997

Radio Maya TGBA, Guatemala early 1970’s

Radio Exitos, Dominican Republic 1971

Today, it seems that only a handful of stations can be found broadcasting in the 90 metre band. These would include WWCR in Nashville, the Voice of Indonesia, KCBS Pyongyang and Radio Mosoj Chaski in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As well, the Canadian time signal station CHU still continues to use 3330 kHz.

A recent recording of Mosoj Chaski Radio, a Christian broadcaster logged using a remote SDR in Lima, Peru, is presented here.

Although not in English, listen carefully and you can hear them give their frequency of 3310 kHz in the 90 metre band as well as their location of Cochabamba, Bolivia.

RAC: Canadian Amateurs Invited to Participate in Solar Eclipse Project

Contribute to Eclipse Science and History: Research Propagation with Your Receiver!

March 5, 2024 –

The Case Amateur Radio Club W8EDU of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio is excited to invite Canadian Amateurs to participate in the upcoming CHU Eclipse Data Collection Project!

We will be monitoring the reception of the Canadian time standard CHU before, during, and after the eclipse to measure the recombination time of the ionosphere. In other words, we know that the ionosphere changes in response to the presence of UV radiation in the sun by ionizing during the day and ‘de-ionizing’ at night (which is why many frequency bands propagate differently during the day and the night).

We understand how the ionosphere changes over a normal 24-hour period in response to the relatively slow transition from daytime to night time, but want to learn more about how it changes over a much shorter period (which is what the eclipse provides). We want you to help!

Our goal is to study how the eclipse affects radio wave propagation, helping us understand the ionosphere’s recombination time. To achieve this, we need your help recording Canada’s time standard station CHU for two weeks surrounding the April 8th eclipse. Anyone with a KiwiSDR or a rig capable of interfacing with analysis/recording software like Fldigi is encouraged to join the effort!

This project has already garnered enthusiastic support from various communities, including the American Radio Relay League, the Radio Amateurs of Canada, and the Ham Radio Citizen Science Investigation HamSCI.

We have over 20 stations across the continent participating, from universities and high schools to representatives from the Radio Amateurs of Canada and even a station in Mexico!

To join us and contribute valuable data, simply visit our website and follow the instructions (https://w8edu.wordpress.com/chu-eclipse-data-collection/) to set up your station and notify us about your participation.

Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions or comments.

Adam Goodman W7OKE, President, Case Amateur Radio Club
David Kazdan AD8Y, MD, PhD, Faculty Advisor, Case Amateur Radio Club
Chistian Zorman, PhD, Faculty Advisor, Case Amateur Radio Club, Associate Dean for Research, Case School of Engineering

Jock says, “It’s about time…and beacons!”

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A WWV Time Code Generator

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jock Elliott, who shares the following guest post:

It’s about time . . . and beacons

By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM

Shortwave time stations can be incredibly useful for shortwave listeners, not just for checking the time, but also for finding out what’s going on with radio signal propagation. What makes these stations particularly valuable is that they are available all the time. I use them often when I am testing radio equipment or tweaks to my listening post.

Chief Engineer Matt Deutch at WWV/WWVB. (Photo: Thomas)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce) maintains a couple of stations devoted to broadcasting time announcements, standard time intervals, standard frequencies, UT1 time corrections, a BCD time code, and geophysical alerts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado, according to NIST:

“radiates 10 000 W on 5 MHz, 10 MHz, and 15 MHz; and 2500 W on 2.5 MHz and 20 MHz. Each frequency is broadcast from a separate transmitter. Although each frequency carries the same information, multiple frequencies are used because the quality of HF reception depends on many factors such as location, time of year, time of day, the frequency being used, and atmospheric and ionospheric propagation conditions. The variety of frequencies makes it likely that at least one frequency will be usable at all times.”

In addition, WWV broadcasts the same signal heard on the other WWV frequencies on 25 MHz on an experimental basis. The power is 2500 W and, as an experimental broadcast, is may be interrupted or suspended without notice.

WWVH crew from left to right: Dean Takamatsu, Dean Okayama, Director Copan, Adela Mae Ochinang and Chris Fujita. Credit: D. Okayama/NIST

WWVH, based in Kekaha, Hawaii, transmits 10000 W on 10 MHz and 15 MHz, and 5000 W on 2.5 MHz. A NIST notes that the 5 MHz broadcast, which normally radiates 10 000 W, is currently operating at 5000 W due to equipment failure.

Photo Thomas (K4SWL) took in 2014 of the sign above WWV’s primary 10 MHz transmitter.

Both stations have voice announcements. WWV uses a male voice; WWVH, a female voice. They are staggered in time so that they don’t talk over each other. While doing research for this blog, one afternoon on 5 MHz and 10 MHz, I could hear the female voice, followed by the male voice, so I was hearing both Hawaii and Colorado. On 15 MHz, I could hear only Hawaii. Both stations transmit in AM mode, although I sometimes use upper sideband to pick the signals out of the noise.

CHU’s QSL card used in the 1980s depicting Sir Sanford Fleming, father of uniform times zones.

In addition, there is a Canadian time station. CHU transmits 3000 W signals on 3.33 and 14.67 MHz, and a 5000 W signal on 7.85 MHz.

The frequencies were chosen to avoid interference from WWV and WWVH. The signal is AM mode, with the lower sideband suppressed.

The same information is carried on all three frequencies simultaneously including announcements every minute, alternating between English and French. The CHU transmitters are located near Barrhaven, Ontario.

According to a posting on Radio Reference, there is also a time beacon in Moscow, Russia that transmits on 9996 and 14996 kHz in CW mode. I have never heard that station.

If anyone knows of additional shortwave time stations, please post the information in the comments section below.

Beacons

Another “standard reference” that can be used to figure out what’s happening with shortwave propagation is the International Beacons Project, a worldwide network of radio propagation beacons. It consists of 18 Morse code (CW) beacons operating on five designated frequencies in the high frequency band. The project is coordinated by the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU).

This page shows the locations of the beacons and gives samples of the signals that can be heard. Each beacon transmits once on each band once every three minutes, 24 hours a day. A transmission consists of the callsign of the beacon sent at 22 words per minute followed by four one-second dashes. The callsign and the first dash are sent at 100 watts. The remaining dashes are sent at 10 watts, 1 watt and 100 milliwatts. At the end of each 10 second transmission, the beacon steps to the next higher band and the next beacon in the sequence begins transmitting.

Clicking around the International Beacons Project website will reveal a wealth of information, including a Reverse Beacon Network — https://www.ncdxf.org/beacon/RBN.html — no kidding.

Finally, if you would like to disappear down the rabbit hole of chasing shortwave beacons, here is a list of 411 beacons around the world: http://www.dl8wx.de/BAKE_KW.HTM

The listing includes the frequency, the location, and the power of the transmitter (among other things). If any reader has experience with these beacons, please post in the comments section.

CHU Time Station heard in “The Book of Boba Fett”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Fred Waterer, who shares a link to the following video from the new series The Book of Boba Fett.

Note that the quality of this video is rather poor, no doubt to keep it from being pulled off of YouTube for copyright violation:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Not the first time CHU appeared in Star Wars!

You might recall that we first heard CHU in the “Battle of Hoth” scenes from The Empire Strikes Back!

In fact, Star Wars Sound Designer, Ben Burtt, gave us some proper insight in a post a few years ago. It was truly an honor corresponding with him directly and learning about his grandfather, Harold Burtt (W8CD).

Click here to read about Benn Burtt’s fascination with radio.

I’m looking forward to watching The Book of Boba Fett and hearing CHU for myself! Thanks for the tip, Fred!