Additional options include discussing the issue with contacts at the Commerce Department and the White House. The appropriations committees in Congress fund the government. The Commerce Department is funded by the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee. In the senate, it is chaired by Jerry Moran of Kansas and its Tanking Democrat is Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. On the House side, it is chaired by (as Chris previously indicated) John Culberson of Texas and the Ranking Democrat is Jose Serrano of New York. https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/subcommittees/commerce-justice-science... https://appropriations.house.gov/about/members/commercejusticescience.htm I’d recommend meetings with the executive and legislative branches over the next couple of weeks. I’m happy to accompany Imlay and/or whomever ARRL designated as the organization’s contact on the matter. I can also do the outreach solo if necessary. I’ll await your instructions. Thanks. —Frank **NOTE NEW ADDRESS** Frank McCarthy Principal McCarthy Advanced Consulting 410 First Street, SE Second Floor Washington, DC 20003 fmccarthy@macadvanced.com On Aug 16, 2018, at 11:58 AM, Christopher Imlay <w3kd.arrl@gmail.com> wrote: OK, folks I have done more than a bit of digging around on this since yesterday morning, and I did ask Frank McCarthy to provide us with a status report on the NIST Budget proposal for FY 19 and where it stands on Capitol Hill. I have not yet heard back from Frank but I have figured out, I believe, where the NIST budget proposal stands in Congress right now. Here is what I have for you so far, subject to vetting with Frank: 1. As can be easily seen from the links that are on our web site for this story, the proposal to close WWV, WWVB and WWVH comes from within NIST, not from anyone on Capitol Hill. NIST developed its own budget proposal for all of its FY 19 operations including "$6.3 million supporting fundamental measurement dissemination, including the shutdown of NIST radio stations in Colorado and Hawaii". Its overall budget proposal is substantially reduced from FY 18's appropriation. 2. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is part of the Department of Commerce. 3. The budget for most of Commerce's activities for FY 19 is included in two bills, H.R. 5952 and S. 3072. Both are pending and have not passed in either the House or the Senate. Each Bill includes appropriations for NIST for FY 19. 4. H.R. 5952, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2019 was introduced May 24, 2018 by Representative Culberson of Texas. It was referred to the House Appropriations Committee. Congress.gov shows that no action has been taken on this yet. 5. The report on H.R. 5952 which accompanied the Bill has this to say about NIST's Budget proposal. It is silent on the closing of WWV and WWVH: National Institute of Standards and Technology The Committee recommends $985,000,000 for NIST, which is $213,500,000 below fiscal year 2018 and $355,928,000 above the request. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL RESEARCH AND SERVICES (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS) The Committee recommends $720,000,000 for NIST's scientific and technical programs, which is $4,500,000 below fiscal year 2018 and $146,571,000 above the request. Laboratory programs.--The recommendation includes no less than the fiscal year 2018 amount for NIST Laboratory programs. Corporate services.--The recommendation includes $17,250,000 for corporate services. Standards Coordination and Special Programs.--The recommendation includes $55,000,000 for standards coordination and special programs. The recommendation does not adopt the proposed reduction to forensic science. The recommendation terminates Urban Dome and Lab-to-Market. National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program.--The Committee supports NIST's increased focus on post-impact disaster studies and pre-impact mitigation to protect against multi-hazard risk. As NIST moves forward with efforts to expand the resiliency of buildings, facilities, and communities in the face of multi- hazard risks, the Committee encourages the agency to fund extramural research and designate NIST testing partners from existing nationally designated windstorm testing facilities located at U.S. academic research institutions that are capable of testing large, holistic, multi-hazard structures and models. As recent disasters illustrate, the U.S. needs more focused research and development on how to make buildings, infrastructure, and communities more resistant and resilient to hurricane impacts, from both wind and storm surge. The Committee directs the agency to prioritize funding for extramural grants within the Engineering Division for these types of studies. Textile research.--The Committee recognizes the importance of the U.S. textile industry and encourages NIST to pursue advanced textile and apparel research and manufacturing activities. Internet of Things.--The Committee recognizes the importance of United States' leadership in addressing security concerns for users and data within the Internet of Things and appreciates NIST's ongoing work in this area. The Committee encourages NIST to continue strengthening its cybersecurity standard-setting efforts related to the Internet of Things. INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY SERVICES The Committee recommends $145,000,000 for Industrial Technology Services, which is $10,000,000 below fiscal year 2018 and $129,906,000 above the request. This amount includes $140,000,000 for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and $5,000,000 for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. Program efficiencies.--The Committee is aware of efforts by MEP to examine ways to reduce administrative costs and provide more direct assistance to the centers. Accordingly, MEP shall provide to the Committee an updated report within 60 days of enactment of this Act detailing the amount of funds to be maintained at headquarters and the uses of those funds. NIST shall also provide the Committee with updates on the status of recompetition of the centers. CONSTRUCTION OF RESEARCH FACILITIES The Committee recommends $120,000,000 for NIST construction, which is $199,000,000 below fiscal year 2018 and $79,451,000 above the request. NIST shall continue to provide updates on the projects funded within this account, to include milestones and total amount of funding necessary for completion. 6. In the Senate, S. 3072, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2019, which seems similar to H.R. 5952, was introduced by Senator Moran of Kansas on June 14, 2018 and is pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee. It does not contain any reference to WWV or WWVH, nor does the Report associated with the Bill relative to the NIST budget. The NIST portion of the report accompanying the Bill is long and not relevant, but the beginning of it is as follows. It is noteworthy that the proposed budget for NIST is larger than the NIST Budget request: National Institute of Standards and Technology Appropriations, 2018.................................... $1,198,500,000 Budget estimate, 2019................................... 629,072,000 Committee recommendation................................ 1,037,500,000 The Committee's recommendation provides $1,037,500,000 for the National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST]. The recommendation is $161,000,000 below the fiscal year 2018 enacted level and $408,428,000 above the budget request. Up to $9,000,000 may be transferred from the Scientific and Technical Research and Services account to the Working Capital Fund. 7. Because it appears that there is an opportunity to at least provide some input to Congress and to NIST about the proposed closing of WWV/B and WWVH, I would ask the Executive Committee how it wishes to proceed. We can use the RallyCongress tool that we have; We can send letters to the Chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and the Minority Ranking Members; we can more actively lobby this on Capitol Hill or we can do some advocacy at NIST if you wish. I would note that our last legislative opportunity for passage of the Parity Act in Congress is now before the Committee of Conference of the House and Senate relative to the FY 19 Budget Act that HAS passed both houses, with the Parity Act only in the House version. So there are limited numbers of times we can go to the same well contemporaneously. 73, Chris W3KD

On Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 10:50 AM, James F. Boehner, MD <jboehner01@yahoo.com> wrote: Sorry for the lateness of this comment, but I had my first night on FT8, and that took priority. I did see K5RAV in there as well. Yes, it really IS that much fun!

I realize this WWV/WWVH shutdown may be a “done deal”, so doing a detailed study or putting our significant legislative efforts forward would most likely be fruitless. However, inquires, as mentioned earlier in this thread, would be the best course of action for now.

Those in our aging demographic that grew up with WWV did consider that as an icon that would never go away. Unfortunately, it is on that track. Keeping our membership in mind, the ARRL should show some support for the continuation of the service, as that is what I (as a member) would expect my national organization should do. From a public relations standpoint, we do need to communicate this effort widely to our membership via our communication resources.

Granted there are other ways to accomplish what WWV was widely used for in the first place. I have a GPSDO enabled transceiver that has frequency accuracy down to e-9. We have frequency counters, TCXO’s, OXCO’s, 10 MHz GPS reference units, etc. However, very little was as satisfying to me as zero beating to WWV.

’73 de JIM N2ZZ

Director – Roanoke Division

Representing ARRL members in the Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina sections

ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio™

From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Roderick, Rick, K5UR via arrl-odv Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2018 11:25 AM To: w3kd.arrl@gmail.com; jbellows@skypoint.com Cc: arrl-odv@arrl.org Subject: [arrl-odv:27479] Re: Potential WWV and WWVH Shutdown

I have an inquiry in to Frank McCarthy to see if we are in time to do anything about this. First hurdle....

Thanks, Chris. Let's see what we can do.

Rick

...

-----Original Message----- From: Christopher Imlay <w3kd.arrl@gmail.com> To: John Bellows <jbellows@skypoint.com> Cc: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@arrl.org> Sent: Wed, Aug 15, 2018 10:13 am Subject: [arrl-odv:27478] Re: Potential WWV and WWVH Shutdown

I first heard of this via Jim Pace from one of his constituents. Jim's guy succinctly stated a series of sensible reasons for keeping both standard broadcasts. I don't know if these are sufficient together or whether it is timely to take this on, but perhaps we can get the staff, such as our lab staff, to flesh this out and actually create a tenable argument that we can use:

"These measurement systems are still being used for radio tuning, SW demonstrations, teaching Merit Badges and propagations (sic) studies."

I have an inquiry in to Frank McCarthy to see if we are in time to do anything about this. First hurdle....

Chris

On Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 10:29 AM, John Bellows <jbellows@skypoint.com> wrote:

Director Norton is asking the correct first question, namely , “ (Is) it in the interest of Amateur Radio and ARRL that WWV and WWVH continue to broadcast time in propagation information ? “. There is a second question that has to be asked. Are these broadcasts necessary to us amateurs or a simply a convenience?

If the time and propagation information and frequency standards are available from other sources, do we really want to spend political capital on fighting this decision?

I too rely on WWV as a standard occasionally. I do it primarily because listening to the beat of the tone brings back fond memories of my early days as a ham. Generally I rely on other source for the time and propagation information. Others may use it more extensively and find it necessary.

As Chris notes the real question is should this be a signature advocacy issue for ARRL?

73,

Jay, K0QB

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 15, 2018, at 12:13 AM, Richard J. Norton <richardjnorton@gmail.com> wrote:

Is it in the interests of Amateur Radio and the ARRL that WWV and WWVH continue to broadcast time and propagation information?

As shown on

https://www.nist.gov/director/fy-2019-presidential-budget-request-summary/fu...

and even on

http://www.arrl.org/news/nist-fy-2019-budget-would-eliminate-wwv-and-wwvh ,

it looks like there is a significant chance of them shutting down.

There is support among the Amateur Radio community to keep them operating.

I propose we send Congress correspondence indicating our support for maintaining operations.

This might be accomplished using our lobbying firm.

73,

Dick Norton, N6AA

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--

Christopher D. Imlay

Booth, Freret & Imlay, LLC

14356 Cape May Road

Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011

(301) 384-5525 telephone

(301) 384-6384 facsimile

W3KD@ARRL.ORG

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-- Christopher D. Imlay Booth, Freret & Imlay, LLC 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 (301) 384-5525 telephone (301) 384-6384 facsimile W3KD@ARRL.ORG