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60 kHz (2022)

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Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#71
post #12
post #6

the bandwidth is just enough to broadcast a single digit of binary every second. I'd be interested in some more context on this. I think it's pretty clear that you can encode more than 1bps in a 60kHz signal, but I'm curious how the encoding was chosen. There's some more detail on it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWVB#Modulation_format The WWVB 60 kHz carrier, which has a normal ERP of 70 kW, is reduced in powe…

The signal is not 60 kHz wide. It is at 60 kHz. A pure carrier with no modulation has the inverse of infinite bandwidth. (Assuming perfect transmitters, which can't really exist, of course.) The faster you modulate the signal, the more it spreads out across the spectrum. The frequency-time tradeoff. The time signals run at the low end of longwave. That spans from about 40 to 120 kHz or so. There is about 100 kHz of s…

If we could have have 58 kHz to 62, that's 4 kHz. Enough for a 300 baud modem to work, which is 300 times faster than 1 bit per second.

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#72
For those looking to hear what this sounds like without buying any radio gear, there are many public kiwisdr sites that can hear 60khz. It's a matter of choosing AM decoding and tuning to the particular frequency.

http://kiwisdr.com/public/

Many of these have user limits and time limits as well. Note that you can also hear WWVB on 2.5mhz, 5mhz, 10mhz, and 15mhz.

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#73
post #12
post #6

the bandwidth is just enough to broadcast a single digit of binary every second. I'd be interested in some more context on this. I think it's pretty clear that you can encode more than 1bps in a 60kHz signal, but I'm curious how the encoding was chosen. There's some more detail on it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWVB#Modulation_format The WWVB 60 kHz carrier, which has a normal ERP of 70 kW, is reduced in powe…

The signal is not 60 kHz wide. It is at 60 kHz. A pure carrier with no modulation has the inverse of infinite bandwidth. (Assuming perfect transmitters, which can't really exist, of course.) The faster you modulate the signal, the more it spreads out across the spectrum. The frequency-time tradeoff. The time signals run at the low end of longwave. That spans from about 40 to 120 kHz or so. There is about 100 kHz of s…

Could we have something like an AM broadcast, but then the receiver “upsampling” the data? Maybe using some ML?

For example, if you have an AM channel that always transmits some song from a list, then you might not even need to receive the whole song. Or maybe you can have a model that’s good at upsampling those types of songs/data?

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#74
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The agency running the German equivalent to WWVB, DCF77, has looked into piggybacking an emergency warning signal onto unused bits of the time signal: https://www.ptb.de/cms/en/presseaktuelles/journals-magazines... These days though, a more popular idea seem to be to piggy back onto GNSS signals, which are also broadly available (no idea how well they compare in practice to low frequency time beacons), and for which…

> a more popular idea seem to be to piggy back onto GNSS signals Don’t all GNSS systems provide a highly accurate time signal (maybe needed for computing the distance to satellite)? I know GPS does at least.

As mentioned somewhere else, these time signals also carry information about DST and adapt for leap seconds, both of which GPS doesn't do as far as I know. I remember that earlier versions of Android always set the phone clock to GPS which was then off by a number of seconds.

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#75
post #73
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The signal is not 60 kHz wide. It is at 60 kHz. A pure carrier with no modulation has the inverse of infinite bandwidth. (Assuming perfect transmitters, which can't really exist, of course.) The faster you modulate the signal, the more it spreads out across the spectrum. The frequency-time tradeoff. The time signals run at the low end of longwave. That spans from about 40 to 120 kHz or so. There is about 100 kHz of s…

Could we have something like an AM broadcast, but then the receiver “upsampling” the data? Maybe using some ML? For example, if you have an AM channel that always transmits some song from a list, then you might not even need to receive the whole song. Or maybe you can have a model that’s good at upsampling those types of songs/data?

This is pretty much what audio compression, like a MP3 file, does: it figures out how to encode perceptually-identical (or close) stuff more densely and remove redundant information.

Every time you listen to "HD Radio" you're doing exactly this.

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#76

Sadly, WWVB is damaged. At midnight on April 7, 2024, WWVB's south antenna was disabled due to damage sustained during high winds. WWVB now broadcasts exclusively from the north antenna, at a reduced power of 30kW. This situation is expected to continue "indefinitely", presumably because of a lack of budget for repairs.

Important to note the update:

Update 20 May 2024: The components necessary for the refurbishment of the southern antenna’s triatic are currently being manufactured and shipped. The projected timeline for the completion of these repairs is tentatively set for the latter part of June 2024. We would like to emphasize that this is an estimated timeline and may be subject to alterations based on a variety of factors. We greatly appreciate your understanding and patience during this process.

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#77
post #73
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The signal is not 60 kHz wide. It is at 60 kHz. A pure carrier with no modulation has the inverse of infinite bandwidth. (Assuming perfect transmitters, which can't really exist, of course.) The faster you modulate the signal, the more it spreads out across the spectrum. The frequency-time tradeoff. The time signals run at the low end of longwave. That spans from about 40 to 120 kHz or so. There is about 100 kHz of s…

Could we have something like an AM broadcast, but then the receiver “upsampling” the data? Maybe using some ML? For example, if you have an AM channel that always transmits some song from a list, then you might not even need to receive the whole song. Or maybe you can have a model that’s good at upsampling those types of songs/data?

AM broadcast uses a "band" around the carrier. Whatever tricks you use Shannon's law is going to determine the upper limit of how much data you can carry which depends on the bandwidth and the signal to noise ratio. ML makes no difference from a theoretical perspective. Compression just reduces the bandwidth you'll need assuming your data compresses (with whatever method you choose, ML can be part of that)...

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#78
post #13

It's kind of baffling that in 2024 there are appliances that exist for which I have to manually set the time, or at least have to go through some cumbersome IoT set-up process, that most likely is absolute garbage security-wise if it isn't actively acting against my interests (like those fridges that only work with first-party water filters). Maybe I'm under-thinking this, but couldn't my Wi-Fi router just broadcast…

Yes but then that would require consensus on protocol, encoding/decoding, etc., aka the things large companies are the worst at aligning on.

There is only one government

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#79
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The signal is not 60 kHz wide. It is at 60 kHz. A pure carrier with no modulation has the inverse of infinite bandwidth. (Assuming perfect transmitters, which can't really exist, of course.) The faster you modulate the signal, the more it spreads out across the spectrum. The frequency-time tradeoff. The time signals run at the low end of longwave. That spans from about 40 to 120 kHz or so. There is about 100 kHz of s…

If we could have have 58 kHz to 62, that's 4 kHz. Enough for a 300 baud modem to work, which is 300 times faster than 1 bit per second.

We need to know the signal to noise ratio. Not just the bandwidth. 4khz is enough to carry much higher rates on residential phone lines...

Re: 60 kHz (2022)

#80
post #77
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could we have something like an AM broadcast, but then the receiver “upsampling” the data? Maybe using some ML? For example, if you have an AM channel that always transmits some song from a list, then you might not even need to receive the whole song. Or maybe you can have a model that’s good at upsampling those types of songs/data?

AM broadcast uses a "band" around the carrier. Whatever tricks you use Shannon's law is going to determine the upper limit of how much data you can carry which depends on the bandwidth and the signal to noise ratio. ML makes no difference from a theoretical perspective. Compression just reduces the bandwidth you'll need assuming your data compresses (with whatever method you choose, ML can be part of that)...

I guess my usual experience is that AM transmissions sound pretty horrible, especially compared to FM

So, my question is more like, can we just upgrade the equipment and keep the channels? And can AM be used more like for signal/indexing rather than full data dump? (eg. instead of transmitting the whole song, transmitting just an id of the song)

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