Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?: Does Anybody Really Care?

摘要

"Does anybody really know what time it is?" the rock group Chicago famously asked back in the '70s, adding, "Does anybody really care ... about time?" The answer to both questions is yes, especially today, when so much of what we do, where we go, and how we get there are dependent on (our devices, at least) knowing the accurate time. It is perhaps appropriate that I'm writing this while on a (delayed) train, since it was the rise of rail travel that was responsible for standard time zones and the need for accurate timekeeping. The reason I'm writing this is because the nation's timekeeper, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has proposed eliminating its time and frequency standard radio stations, WWV, WWVB, and WWVH, in an effort to reduce its budget for the 2019 federal fiscal year. Obviously, this would have significant impact on us hams, but we would be only a fraction of those affected, unless the funding is restored by Congress. And it looks to us like that is exactly what the folks at NIST are hoping will happen. The NIST budget request document1 is confusing and self-contradictory, at one point saying the services it provides are unique and then saying some are duplicated by others. And the services it is proposing to cut go beyond WWV and its sisters to include technology for safety of first responders, protocols for the electric grid and more.