The amateur radio community learned the week of May 20 that the time and frequency broadcasts of the NRC Canada radio station CHU would cease effective June 22, 2026.
Reaction was swift and widespread, especially among the HamSCI.org members who utilize broadcasts like CHU and WWV extensively for their research.
The HamSCI Science Advisory Board released the following statement on May 29, 2026, regarding the announced closure of the CHU service:
HamSCI General Statement on CHU
The Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation wishes to emphasize the significant scientific value of National Research Council (NRC) Canada’s time standard HF radio beacons at station CHU in Ottawa. NRC Canada recently announced a plan to cease CHU operations on 22 June 2026. As active scientific users of CHU’s signals, we urge the NRC to reverse this decision.
The entire statement and accompanying post are available at HamSCI.org/CHU.
I had a short email exchange this week with Steve Herman, W7DQ, Chief National Correspondent for the Voice of America until 2025, now the executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation, School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi.
Steve authored an excellent article in 2018 about the administrations proposed Fiscal 2019 budget and the suggestion to remove the NIST Time and Frequency Services broadcasts. (Time May Be Running Out for Millions of Clocks: https://www.voanews.com/a/time-may-be-running-out-for-millions-of-clocks/4554376.html)
Steve was gracious enough to answer one of my questions and to allow the club to post it here.
The question:
From your perspective as a Washington observer and reporter and an amateur radio operator … what are other challenges facing national time services and do they still have a role in supporting science, education, and industry going forward?
His response:
The proposed shutdown of CHU and a potential similar fate for WWV are a short-sighted retreat from foundational scientific infrastructure.
Legacy is not obsolescence. For more than a century, the high-frequency radio broadcasts from CHU have served as a universally accessible Canadian laboratory. In education and amateur science. The signals of CHU, WWV and similar time stations provide a free, reliable standard for calibrating equipment, teaching radio wave propagation and conducting ionospheric research. In industry these continuous feeds are an independent benchmark to verify local atomic clocks and synchronize distributed networks. To silence these transmitters is to dismantle a piece of open-access scientific infrastructure that costs relatively little to maintain but yield big dividends.
Modern civilization has become dependent on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as GPS. From financial transaction timestamps to the navigation systems of commercial airliners and emergency services, our world now runs on a fragile string of signals beamed from low-Earth orbit. Yet, these space-based systems are vulnerable. A severe geomagnetic storm, a well-coordinated cyberattack or the deliberate deployment of anti-satellite weaponry could instantly blind or corrupt the GPS network. Shortwave stations such as CHU and WWV stand as the ultimate, resilient backup. Unlike satellite signals, which require line-of-sight clarity and complex receiver architecture, shortwave radio waves bounce off the ionosphere, traveling thousands of miles across North America and beyond. In a crisis where the satellite systems are compromised, these ground-based transmitters will continue to broadcast accurate UTC time. They ensure that public safety networks, defense infrastructure and essential utilities can maintain the precise synchronization critical for operations. Silencing these signals will remove a vital failsafe, leaving society dangerously exposed to a single point of failure.
Steve Herman
W7DQ
I didn’t expect to get such a critical and thorough answer. Steve, thanks for sharing your support for these important government services and all they provide.
We’ll do our best over the course of the next month to keep our members aware of any changes to the situation or additional announcements about CHU and anything more from HamSCI.org.
73,
Dave Swartz, W0DAS
WWVARC Communications Director
May 30, 2026
