National Research Council Time Signal

The National Research Council Time Signal is Canada's longest running but shortest radio programme. Heard every day since November 5, 1939 (three years and three days after the CBC's establishment), shortly before 13:00 Eastern Time across the CBC Radio One network, it lasts between 15 and 45 seconds, ending exactly at 13:00. During standard time, the signal is at 13:00 Eastern Standard Time and during Daylight Saving Time, the signal is at 13:00 Eastern Daylight Saving Time.

The signal is also heard on some stations of the Première Chaîne radio network at 12:00 ET daily.

The signal consists of a series of 300 ms "pips" of an 800 Hz sine wave tone, each one starting at the top of each UTC second, up to ten seconds before the hour, followed by silence, and then a one second-long 800 Hz tone to mark the top of the hour. The CBC time signal is typically delayed by about 300 ms with respect to the CHU time signal, because each CBC radio station receives the actual time signal from Ottawa by satellite.

The spoken header, as announced by a local on-air talent at each station, is typically of the style,

Now, the National Research Council time signal. The beginning of the long dash following ten seconds of silence indicates exactly one o'clock, Eastern Standard Time, January 15th, 2010.

In different time zones, the local time and time zone is used instead. This header is usually spoken over the initial pips. As of May 2011, the length of the silence has been reduced to six seconds.

At the top of many other hours, and at the discretion of each station, a one-second tone is sounded, but the hour itself is not necessarily announced.

Read more about National Research Council Time Signal:  NRC Telephone Talking Clock, NRC NTP Service

Famous quotes containing the words national, research, council, time and/or signal:

    It is no part of the functions of the National Government to find employment for the people, and if we were to appropriate a hundred millions for his purpose, we should only be taxing 40 millions of people to keep a few thousand employed.
    James A. Garfield (1831–1881)

    Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our findings deadly. We physicists have to make peace with reality. Reality is not as strong as we are. We will ruin reality.
    Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)

    Daughter to that good Earl, once President
    Of England’s Council and her Treasury,
    Who lived in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,
    And left them both, more in himself content.

    Till the sad breaking of that Parliament
    Broke him, as that dishonest victory
    At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,
    Kill’d with report that old man eloquent;—
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    The truth is, I do not want that office. When the American people choose a President they require him to remain awake four years. I have come to a time in life when I need my sleep.
    Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)

    Perhaps having built a barricade when you’re sixteen provides you with a sort of safety rail. If you’ve once taken part in building one, even inadvertently, doesn’t its usually latent image reappear like a warning signal whenever you’re tempted to join the police, or support any manifestation of Law and Order?
    Jean Genet (1910–1986)