CHU to shut down

[Nicholas Hall-Patch]

via Canadian International DX Club:

As of June 22, 2026, the shortwave radio broadcast of the NRC's official time signal will no longer be available.

https://nrc.canada.ca/en/certifications-evaluations-standards/canadas-official-time/nrc-shortwave-station-broadcasts-chu

Tony Pavick

Hope BC

[pop...@gmail.com]

This is sad news.

CHU has been on the air approx.. 100 years

 

Greg VA3CBN

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[Mary Lou West]

Why is it being shut down?

Mary Lou    KC2NMC

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[Normand Juneau]

I will inquire about this.

Normand VE2DVG

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[Kristina Collins]

Extremely sad news, especially considering CHU's utility as a signal of opportunity for the PSWS and during the 2024 eclipse campaign. Normand, please let us know what you're able to find out.

Looks like National Research Council Canada offers a contact page here; the specifics are listed below for those moved to reach out. I would encourage everyone to do so; raising the issue proved to be worthwhile for WWV and WWVH in 2018, and it's certainly worth the ask now. 

73 de KD8OXT

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[Ed WX2R]

Normand,

What other Canadian groups should we be reaching out to?

Can RAC be an influencer here??

Ed

Edward J. Efchak
Customers by Design LLC
802-282-6700
www.customersbydesign.com

This email was sent via radio!!. 

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[Normand Juneau]

Hello Ed,

I've already sent an email to RAC and the Quebec Federation of Amateur
Radio Clubs requesting to make formal representations.

I know that one Member of Parliament has been informed about this.

Normand

> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hamsci/CAL%3DF5yrA6wf_6%3DQzc%2BqMwvg5jAsecWD1pdL64c5x7p2ONvogAA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Ed WX2R]

Thanks much for the effort. 

 Tough road ahead. 

E

73

Edward J. Efchak
Customers by Design LLC
802-282-6700
www.customersbydesign.com

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[Robert VA3ROM]

This follows on the heels of the termination of Environment Canada's shutdown of the VHF Weatheradio Canada transmitter network and the “Hello Weather” telephone service (March 16, 2026).  As a former Canadian government employee (35-1/2 years), I've seen the budgetary spending of my one organization, where over 75% was for salary and associated expenses at just one centre,  and only 25% was devoted to the actual equipment and maintenance/upgrades. As a result, well into the 21st century, we were still using 1990's radio and computer technology. Many of the services we were providing to the public, at great expense, were essentially obsolete, unknown or little used. Maintaining analog systems, archaic computers and operating systems (new ones couldn't be interfaced with the out-of-date equipment), and landlines is very, very expensive.  Another fact was that replacement technicians coming out of college had no training on Harris kilowatt (tube) transmitters (or any tube-based training) or how to use and program archaic MSDOS, IBM O/S 2.1 and PL/M-80. The looks they gave us. Needless to say, most moved on as fast as they could get their technologist's tickets punched. Our nearing retirement technicians were sourcing NOS parts from eBay to keep things working!  Long story short, 44 centres became 22, then 11 and the public couldn't care less. But the savings to the federal government (and taxpayers) were in the billions. I suspect that, like our service was, CHU is in bad need of a "makeover". But makeovers are expensive. Be it AES weather radio, NRC CHU, or CBC services, reducing spending on climate change research, or simply ending AES in-person training for the Canadian Weather Amateur Radio Network (CANWARN), and switching to a remote (Zoom) training, all those nickels and dimes saved add up. Especially more so now, when AI will reduce redundant staff and their salary benefits to the bone. So 11 centres eventually become 1, and can we reduce the clerical, technical and operational staff by 90%!  If I'm a Canadian superintendent in charge of, say, NRC, and told by the Minister (my boss) to cut expenses or else find a new job, do I really care about low-handling fruit like CHU? Does the Canadian taxpayer really care about CHU (99% don't even know what a "CHU" is)? Will their world be any different on June 23rd? 

73.

[G Mallery]

Wow. You know, a year ago this came out, and everyone was like "Fake News." 2026 is the 50th anniversary of the Bell-103 tones on CHU. HI

HF still has much contingency operational value.

I still miss CFH (Morse CW).

GL

73,

Guy - W6MSU

[Franco Venturi]

Robert,

I honestly think your last line:

> Does the Canadian taxpayer really care about CHU (99% don't even know what a "CHU" is)? Will their world be any different on June 23rd? 

asks the wrong questions, especially in a discussion forum like this one.

Imagine if say a hundred years ago in 1926, someone would have asked: Does the US taxpayer really care about quantum mechanics (99% don't even know what a "quantum mechanics" is)? or Does the US taxpayer really care about relativity physics?

But now in 2026 we have cell phones with ICs and transistors where quantum effects play a significant role, GPS where relativity effects must be taken into account for the timing to be accurate, and so on

And these examples are just in the fields that I am familiar with; there are probably many better examples out there.

In my opinion one of the purposes of governments and administrations is to have that 'long term vision' that 99% of the people do not necessarily have - don't get me wrong, price of gas is important too, but most of these institutions like CHU are a drop in a bucket in a federal budget, but an important long term investment.

Unfortunately this same attitude is what I see happening here south of the canadian border, where scientific research grants are either cancelled, or postponed indefinitely, the budgets for NSF, NIH, NOAA, etc cut significantly. And here too 99% of the people seem to be OK with it.

73,

Franco K4VZ

[J. Gordon Beattie, Jr.]

Franco Venturi,

Not only has Canada gone bonkers by shutting down their resilient weather radio network and foregone the opportunity to extend it to be an VHF All-Hazards warning system as we have done here in the United States, but now they are turning off CHU.  

A nation that can't stand up its own essential domestic resources for sovereign security becomes a vassal state of other nations.  

Given the current PM's governmental actions on the world stage, we need to be concerned for the wisdom of our relatively open border as they have made deals with Mexico and China designed lessen their dependence on the United States in preference those regimes.  If we allow it, we'll have issues with backdoor trade and hostile  inteligence gathering assets entering our country.  All the while, Canada will become dependent on China's Beidou instead of the American GPS or even the European Galileo constellation, instead of its own organic and sovereign timing and frequency standards.  The ever-vulnerable and centralized Internet will become the sole conveyor of local weather and hazard information.  

Sovereign nations need resilient systems to maintain their independence and Canada seems to be reducing their sovereignty while increasing their dependence on narco-terrorists and totalitarian regimes.  Some day they will likely make choices that won't bode well for their citizens or ours.

73,

Gordon Beattie, W2TTT 

201.314.6964 

W2...@ATT.NET

Gordon.B...@VIAVISolutions.us

Get On The Air!

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From: 'Franco Venturi' via HamSCI <ham...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2026 11:44:30 AM
To: HamSCI <ham...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [HamSCI] Re: CHU to shut down

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[Phil Karn]

Yes, very sad. It was invaluable to me as an ionospheric probe during the recent ARRL Frequency Measuring Test, having frequencies close to the 40 and 80m ham bands and a physical location in line with at least one of the test stations as seen from my QTH.

Phil

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[Don Westacott]

Mr. Gordon Beattie, W2TTT 

 

It is not my usual practice to respond to email such as you have distributed to the HamSci organization.

However, your comment “Not only has Canada gone bonkers….”  must be addressed.

As a Canadian my only response could be and would be “REALLY?”

I would suggest you may have incorrectly referred to the wrong side of the 49^th parallel of latitude.

 

Don Westacott VE6HQ

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hamsci/CH3PR84MB3671A0163132455681CC6724AB0C2%40CH3PR84MB3671.NAMPRD84.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.

[J. Gordon Beattie, Jr.]

Don,

Fair enough.  We disagree.  

I worry for civil liberties north of the 49^th parallel and pray for better for both Canadians and Americans.

Let's leave it at that in this forum.

73,

Gordon Beattie, W2TTT 

201.314.6964 

W2...@ATT.NET

Gordon.B...@VIAVISolutions.us

Get On The Air!

---

From: ham...@googlegroups.com <ham...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Don Westacott <Don_We...@outlook.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2026 5:01:11 PM
To: ham...@googlegroups.com <ham...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [HamSCI] Re: CHU to shut down, a Response from Canada

 

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[Kristina Collins]

Hi all,

A friendly reminder to keep posts here in line with the HamSCI Community Participation Guidelines; link appended to each email in this thread. I would prefer not to have to switch this list to moderated mode.

I believe we are all in general agreement with regard to the value of CHU, of resilient PNT in general, and of the promotion of international goodwill as a core tenet of the Amateur Service. I look forward to productive and respectful discussion of these topics on the main thread.

73 de KD8OXT

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[Gwyn Griffiths]

This is indeed sad news. For propagation studies across the Atlantic CHU provides a signal less affected by geomagnetic disturbances than those from WWV and without the ambiguity of whether it is from WWV, WWVH or BPM.

 I will send a note to the general contact address in Kristina's link, with a cc to Dr Marina.Gertsvolf. I will attach this pdf one-pager of a nice recent space weather event affecting CHU, as observed at the RX888 PSWS GB0PSC, Baldock, UK, that depended on the CHU attributes I list. 

73

Gwyn G3ZIL

PS I will wait a few days in case anyone spots an error in the attachment.

[Nicholas Hall-Patch]

Thank you for this, Gwyn.   The advantages of CHU to citizen science are clearly laid out.   How important citizen science is to Canada's National Research Council is unknown to me, as a quick search of their site found little.  There is a brief fairly boilerplate reference here:  https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/office-chief-science-advisor/annual-reports/chief-science-advisor-annual-report-2023-24#4-1

I wonder if weblinks to HamSCI and to RSGB should be provided in your submission, as those organizations could likely be unknown to the National Research Council ? 

I assume that others will reference, for example, https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/astronomy-and-space-sciences/articles/10.3389/fspas.2025.1720301/full   Are there other academic papers that reference the use of CHU's signals?

  

For background, enclosed is what CHU's site used to say about the provision of exact frequency.   Now the site just goes to the closure announcement, so this is from the Wayback Machine, April 8 of this year.

73

Nick

VE7DXR

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[Phil Erickson]

Hi all,

  FYI, the science advisory board for HamSCI is preparing its own responses to this change, and we are targeting the papers Nick mentions as well as the Personal Space Weather Station "meta-instrument" features.  We will also be folding in Canadian Space Agency priorities for understanding the sub auroral and auroral ionosphere, as well as connections to other documents such as recommendations in the US National Academies' Decadal Survey in Heliophysics.  

  But please keep iterating as a community to inform NRC of the uses of CHU that Gwyn, Nick, and others have cited here.  More input is good.

73

Phil W1PJE

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Phil Erickson
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