Jim,

Yes I have taken a tour but it was years ago and they just handed you a 
brochure and let you roam around the complex.  I had heard they discontinued 
tours but I don't know for certain.  I'm sure there is no roaming around the 
facility these days but you never know.  My two ham friends and I had to ask 
someone how to find the atomic clock that counts down the decaying of an 
atom to match earth time.  It was, at that time, just a computer type thing 
sitting in a room all by itself and wasn't guarded or even in a locked room. 
At least we didn't have to unlock it; we just pushed open the door and there 
it was with all its wires and cable sitting in this room.  No biggy but it 
all was interesting.  I am guessing if you call the main number at the 
bureau of standards, a recording will likely say if tours are being 
conducted these days.

Phil.
K0NX




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Shaffer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2014 7:48 AM
Subject: Re: WWV From Colorado


> Phil, have you ever had a WWV tour?  I plan to be in Loveland,, right near
> Ft. Collins, in late July, and would like to tour the facility if 
> possible.
> I've heard that they give a tour there.
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Phil Scovell
> Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2014 12:09 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: WWV From Colorado
>
> Denver is about 50 to 60 miles from WWV and there are lots of hills 
> between
> here and Fort Collins where the antennas are.  During the day, you would
> normally think that their 2.5 signal would be booming into Denver but most
> days, from noon to about 3 PM local, I can't copy them strong enough to 
> hear
> the voice announcement.  I can here the carrier, of course, but some days 
> I
> just can bearly hear them on 2.5 MHz.  The 5.0 frequency is fair during 
> the
> afternoon but some nights is 40 over and a few times this winter, I copied
> the actual female voice of WWVH in Hawaii on 5.0 as it transmits on the 
> same
> frequency.  She makes the announcement before the voice out of the Fort
> Collins stations begins to talk and I have copied her over the WWV carrier
> often over the years.  The same is true on 10.0 and 15.0 MHz.  I copied 
> the
> carrier and her the voice in the noise on 20.0 and 25.0 but the one I copy
> the best, being so close, is the 5.0 MHz as I said.  In 1992 with my 2
> element 40 meter beam at 70 feet, some mornings I copied WWVH on 5.0 at 40
> over S9.  In other times, I have copied, how be it a handful of time, WWVH
> on the 2.5 MHz frequency, too, but that has been pretty rare.  As I 
> recall,
> most of those times were back in the mid to late seventies.  I sure miss
> hearing the time and condition levels given in CW like it was back then,
> too.  I've never been able to copy the atomic clock signals down there in
> the 50 to 60 to 70 Hz range but of course I'm not using any kind of super
> long wire, say 500 miles long, at that low frequency range, haha.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
>