"At The Tone..." (Signal Fades)

     Oops -- the National Institute of Science and Technology's time servers in Bolder, Colorado have been hosed by a prolonged power outage, and at this writing, the atomic clock is way off, at least as such things go.

     I don't see how that can happen without generator issues.  This is part of the WWV radio time signal complex, a well-built, well-maintained facility that operates on a shoestring budget, with a handful of administrators, scientists, engineers and technicians keeping the equipment running.  They've got UPSs and generators; they've got the skill set.  They may not have the bucks.  The transmitters are pretty much antiques, but they were very well built and have been looked after carefully.

     During the first Trump administration, there was some talk of shutting down the WWV stations, due to cuts planned for NIST's budget.  It didn't happen, but this entire operation, the basic time and frequency reference for the United States, is treated like a mushroom farm: left in the dark and mostly ignored except when a fresh load of stable sweepings is shoveled in.  They rarely complain; they're too busy keeping the thing running.