Funding at NIST - an urgent request

NIST is our National Institute of Standards and Technology - they are now what the National Bureau of Standards used to be - the Federal agency responsible for maintaining all the standards that we use today. Instruments to be calibrated can be sent to them and they will test them against the standards that they maintain - volt, ampere, ohm, pound, yard, second, lumen (light intensity), etc... These are vital to every aspect of our daily life - those self-setting clocks that you can buy get their settings from the two radio stations that NIST runs. I use these signals in my amateur radio work.

Although I am a big believer in cutting wasteful spending, their budget has been cut by 27.8% and one of the products on the chopping block is this radio service.

There are two petitions in to the White House to address this - please go there and sign them.

Maintain funding for NIST stations WWV & WWVH

The Proposed Shutdown of NIST's WWV and WWVH Radio Stations

From the first petition:

NIST station WWV and sister stations are among the oldest radio stations in the United States, having been in continuous operation since May 1920. The station has transmitted the official US Time for nearly 100 years, and is an instrumental part in the telecommunications field, ranging from broadcasting to scientific research and education. Additionally, these stations transmit marine storm warnings from the National Weather Service, GPS satellite health reports, and specific information concerning current solar activity, and radio propagation conditions. These broadcasts are an essential resource to the worldwide communications industry. This petition requests continued funding of these stations be maintained into the 21st century and beyond to ensure future operations.

Dr. Judah Levine is the guy who takes care of the clocks at NIST - he is America's Time Lord - a nice profile:

The petition process is quite nice - it is a White House website - if you get 100,000 signatures in 30 days, the White House will officially respond within 60 days.