Home | Back to Wavescan Index

"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.

Wavescan N553, September 29, 2019

WWV 100th Anniversary: The Forgotten Callsigns

At the present time, the well-known chronohertz station WWV in Boulder, Colorado is celebrating its 100th anniversary. It was on October 1, 1919 that the granting of a broadcast license for station WWV in Washington, DC was listed in the Radio Service Bulletin from the Department of Commerce in the United States federal government. As such, station WWV lays claim as the oldest continuously operating broadcasting station in the United States.

On recent occasions here in Wavescan, we have presented the story of several of the WWV callsigns that have been in use during the past one hundred years. This list, as already presented in Wavescan, is as follows, in alphabetical order of callsign:

Let's look now at another forgotten callsign that has been associated with station WWV.

KC2XIO, Boulder, Colorado (Fort Collins)

As it is stated, chronohertz station WWV is operated by the United States government, and it is therefore not under the direct jurisdiction of the FCC licensing authority, as are all of the other radio stations in the United States. However, the FCC does mandate the callsign system, for both the main WWV stations, as well as for the several experimental stations that have been on the air for various periods of time.

The experimental callsign that we examine in our program today is KC2XIO, and it was in use for three different experimental ventures during the years 1970 and 1971. On June 17, 1970, the NBS head office gave approval for the usage of a spare 10 kW transmitter at Fort Collins for the purpose of experimental WWV transmissions.

Back at that time, a new WWVH was under construction at the United States Navy Base at Kokole Point on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The ocean near the original 1948 station at Kihei on the island of Maui had eroded the land upon which the original station stood, and in any case the electronic equipment was old and needed replacing. Thus a new station at a new location was planned.

At the same time as the new WWVH was under construction, NBS gave consideration to improving and updating the audio information that was on the air from the various WWV transmitters. They needed the use of an experimental transmitter so that they could hear on air just what the new audio information sounded like. Thus a 10 kW standby transmitter at Fort Collins was used for this purpose, under the experimental FCC allocated callsign KC2XIO.

The first broadcast from this new KC2XIO went on the air on July 9, 1970 on the shortwave frequency 13560 kHz. There was no working schedule for KC2XIO, the station was just activated whenever the staff wanted to hear the on air sound of what they had produced. A pre-recorded identification announcement stated: This is KC2XIO. These experimental transmissions are not on a continuous basis.

Six days later, on July 15, (1970), Bill Harms in Elkridge, MD happened to hear one of these spasmodic experimental transmissions from KC2XIO on his Grundig Satellit radio. A subsequent QSL letter from the station confirmed that the 10 kW transmitter was located at Fort Collins, and that it was on the air for the trial broadcast of a new audio format for the WWV stations. In the spring of the following year, 1971, a listener in Indianapolis reported that he heard a similar transmission from experimental KC2XIO on his Magnavox radio.

The trial transmissions from the 10 kW KC2XIO in Fort Collins on 13560 kHz lasted less than a year, and they came to an end in May 1971. The usage of the experimental callsign KC2XIO was no longer needed. At least half a dozen do-it-yourself QSL cards are known, and it is probable that a few more were signed and posted back to the listeners from WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado.

KC2XIO, Gunbarrel, Colorado

However, in addition to the usage of the 10 kW shortwave transmitter at Fort Collins, the callsign KC2XIO was applied to another experimental radio event that took place during that same era. It was a low power shortwave operation, and it was installed at Gunbarrel, Colorado, some 40 miles distant from the main transmitter site of WWV in Fort Collins.

We would suggest that the Gunbarrel transmitter was simply an amateur unit with a power output of less than 100 watts. Initially there was no programming on this KC2XIO, just simply an open carrier, though subsequently a program feed was obtain from WWV in Fort Collins.

The actual location for this KC2XIO experiment at Gunbarrel has never been indicated, and the reason for choosing this location has never been revealed, though probably it was simply at the convenience of the operator. The purpose for these experimental transmissions was to study the effect of sunrise on a shortwave transmission, and the project was under the auspices of a 20 year old engineering student with WWV, David Howe. The specific shortwave channel was the same as from Fort Collins, 13560 kHz.

This KC2XIO station was on the air for two hours daily, before and after sunrise, and a dedicated receiver was installed at an unspecified location 700 miles distant, in the state of Missouri. Young David Howe drove out to the Gunbarrel station early each morning. The station was in use for only a brief spate of time back at the end of 1970 and into the following year 1971. The locations were subsequently reversed, with the transmitter in Missouri and the receiver in Gunbarrel.

KC2XIO, Missouri

Around the beginning of the year 1971, the low power KC2XIO transmitter was removed from Gunbarrel and re-installed at the previous reception location in Missouri. The receiver for this second set of sunrise experiments was installed at what had been the transmitter location in Gunbarrel. It is probable that there are no listed specific DX loggings of the Gunbarrel and Missouri transmissions.

Well, that's as far as we can go on this topic today; so next time, we will examine the other forgotten callsigns in the list associated with WWV.