Michael A. Terrell wrote:
They replaced all the transmitters and towers at WWVB a few years ago
to improve service. It now reaches Central Florida without a long wire
antenna & tuner. Why would they spend millions and take a couple years
to do the update if they were planning to shut it down?

They will shut it down eventually because of the cost. NTP servers cost
almost nothing, GPS is "free" because there are no incremental costs for
providing the time signals.

Eventually someone will figure out that a 75kW transmitter has both a
significant expense and a large "carbon footprint".

The upgrade was thought to be needed because of a satellite time system
that was dropped due to GPS was thought to be unable to fit the needs of
the common user. Now GPS units are almost throw away "toys", being used in
almost every cell phone, and for all sorts of SATNAV devices.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM