[Spooks] OT - FYI reply from CHU re 7335 KHz

[Tom Norris]

For the curious that may have heard an announcement by CHU that  
transmissions would cease, here is their reply....


About the New Messages on CHU – October, 2006

The added messages on CHU are:

“On April 1, 2007, CHU needs to stop operating, change frequencies,  
or re-licence. Contact radio.chu at nrc.gc.ca or mail CHU Canada K1A  
0R6,” and

  « En avril 2007, CHU doit soit cesser ses opérations, soit changer  
de fréquence, soit renouveler sa licence. Contactez  
radio at chu.cnrc.gc.ca ou écrivez à CHU Canada, Conseil national de  
recherches, K1A 0R6. »

This outreach is to collect information from users of CHU to help  
shape recommendations concerning what should be done concerning  
changes to CHU that will have to be in place by April 2007.

In April 2007 the licence on 7.335 MHz will have to be modified to  
reflect changes on the status of the band allocation by the  
International Telecommunications Union. This frequency has been  
changed from “fixed service” to “broadcast”. (The ITU decision does  
not affect the frequencies 3.33 MHz and 14.67 MHz.) Some alternatives  
are:

     * Re-licencing just might be possible, calling the 7.335 MHz a  
“broadcast”.
     * It is also possible to stop using that frequency (the most  
useful of the three we use). Stopping one signal is the easiest  
solution but could create problems for some clients who are counting  
on this particular signal.
     * Change the frequency from 7.335 MHz to a nearby fixed-service  
frequency. It would need some investment from our part in new  
hardware and in manpower. It could also create problems for clients,  
and likely not all radios will be able to tune to the new frequency.

To be seriously considered, any of the above alternatives will need  
to have a zero-based budgeting justification prepared, comparing it  
against the least expensive alternative of closing CHU entirely. CHU  
is entering a phase where major investment in new transmitters will  
be required if it is to be kept operating. In the absence of input  
from the CHU user community, concerning the importance of CHU’s  
contribution in the modern world, this last option is an inescapable  
recommendation.

The CHU code is also used as a radio clock, which can be used as a  
reference clock for an NTP time server. Software drivers have been  
written that can obtain the date and time from the code and that tune  
a digitally tuned radio to one of our 3 frequencies, to get the best  
signal. Users of this service generally don’t listen to the audio  
broadcast. So we cannot gauge the usage by sending this announcement.

Please, if you know of anyone using CHU but not aware of the possible  
changes to its frequency usage, let them know and ask them to contact  
us. Also if you have an important use for CHU signals, please tell us  
how you use our signals.

Be assured that we will try our best to maintain the CHU service as  
it is, keeping the three frequencies as they are.

Thank you for your support.