CHU (radio Station) - Western Canada Signal Coverage

Western Canada Signal Coverage

CHU quite often cannot be received in Western Canada on any of its broadcast frequencies, as it universally uses lower transmitter powers than WWV.

Propagation conditions, lower transmitter power coupled with the typical two ionospheric hops distances from Ottawa result in relatively weak time signals for Western Canada. Electrical interference can further aggravate reception difficulty in suburban areas in the West. CHU can be practically unusable in most of Western Canada, as well as Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, for significant stretches of time.

Subject to limitations of their own, WWV and WWVH are the fallback in Western Canada as far as getting reliable time signals via shortwave is concerned. In the High Arctic, however, both the US shortwave time stations and CHU become essentially unreliable or unusable.

Unlike the US, Canada has no longwave time signals dissemination option. Technically WWVB is the only option for reliable time signals during solar storms in the Western Arctic, based on WWVB's published pattern maps. If WWVB is not available, those who need precision time transfer may be able to use GPS time transfer instead.