page_title: WWV (radio station)
section_title: Establishment
hierarchical_section_title: WWV (radio station) / History / Establishment
caption_attribution_description: English: The Portaphone was a prototype radio receiver that was designed by the U.S. Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. Original caption: "Portaphone with case open to show the loop antenna and detecting and amplifying apparatus."
context_page_description: WWV is a shortwave radio station, located near Fort Collins, Colorado. It is best known for its continuous time signal broadcasts begun in 1945, and is also used to establish official United States government frequency standards, with transmitters operating on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz. WWV is operated by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, under the oversight of its Time and Frequency Division, which is part of NIST's Physical Measurement Laboratory based in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
  WWV was first established in 1919 by the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. It has been described as the oldest continuously-operating radio station in the United States, and NIST celebrated WWV's centennial on October 1, 2019.
  In 1931, the station relocated to the first of three suburban Maryland sites, before moving to its current location near Fort Collins in 1966. WWV shares this site with longwave station WWVB, which transmits carrier and time code at 60 kHz. NIST also operates the similarly structured WWVH on Kauai, Hawaii.
context_section_description: The earliest formal record of WWV's existence is in the October 1, 1919 issue of the Department of Commerce's Radio Service Bulletin, where it is listed as a new "experimental station" assigned to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C, with the randomly issued call letters of WWV. However, there were also earlier reports of radio demonstrations by the Bureau, starting the previous February.
  As of May 1920 the Bureau's Radio Laboratory was reported to be conducting weekly Friday evening concerts from 8:30 to 11:00, transmitting on 600 kHz. That same month, the Bureau demonstrated a portable radio receiver, called the "portaphone", which was said to be capable of receiving broadcast programs up to 15 miles (24 km) away.  A newspaper article the following August reported that the weekly concerts could be heard up to 100 miles (160 km) from Washington. It also noted that "The bureau has been experimenting with the wireless music for several months, and has reached such an advanced stage of development that further investigation to them is useless, and they are going to discontinue the concerts." However, the station continued to make occasional broadcasts, and in January 1921 a new distance record was announced when a listener in Chattanooga, Tennessee reported hearing the "jazzy waves whirling out from the Bureau of Standards".
  On December 15, 1920, WWV began broadcasting 500-word "Daily Radio Marketgrams", prepared by the U.S. Bureau of Markets, in Morse code on 750 kHz, which reportedly could be heard up to 200 miles (320 km) from Washington. However, on April 15, 1921 responsibility for the reports was transferred to four stations operated by the Post Office Department, including its WWX in Washington, D.C.
caption: Alongside weekly broadcasts over WWV, in May 1920 the Bureau of Standards presented the "portaphone", with which one could "receive wireless impulses in the form of signals, music or speech, reproducing the same through a loud-speaking telephone and horn".[22]
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