We reported back in the summer that petitions had been started to save WWV, the NIST station in Colorado that has been broadcasting the official US time for almost 100 years and the source of timekeeping for atomic timepieces. It was announced that the US government’s 2019 budget would include cuts that would bring an end to WWV.
Curious about the petition results, I checked today on the White House website. There were two petitions to save WWV, both of which closed in late September. Each needed 100,000 signatures to be successful and have the matter brought before the White House. One petition received 20,219 signatures, the other received only 3,990. As a result, both petitions failed and are now closed.
To gauge the relative success rate and popularity of the WWV petitions, I researched other White House petitions that were successful in obtaining their 100,000 signature goal. I found many, including petitions for the following:
- Create a temporary protected status for Venezula (127,046 signatures).
- Recognize both the name “Sea of Japan” and the “East Sea” concurrently (109,158 signatures).
- Let American farmers grow hemp (115,956 signatures).
- Declare George Soros a terrorist (currently at 175,479 signatures).
- Stop the landfill of Oura Bay in Okinawa (currently at 157,010 signatures)
- Regime change in Iran (163,102 signatures).
- Condemn India’s denial of justice to 1984 Sikh genocide (currently at 124,573 signatures)
- Condemn China’s actions in East Turkistan (107,195 signatures).
It would appear based on the comparative volume of signatures for other issues, many of which don’t even directly affect the American public, that unfortunately the closure of WWV is not something people really care about, at least outside the amateur radio community. I see no recent news or updates on the closure and with the petitions a dismal failure, I suspect that closure is now a foregone conclusion.
Perhaps the fight will be renewed next summer when the non-HAM public discovers that their new atomic clocks and watches no longer have the correct time.
Petition results can be viewed here:
- https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/maintain-funding-nist-stations-wwv-wwvh
- https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/proposed-shutdown-nists-wwv-and-wwvh-radio-stations