Canada’s CHU Time Signal Station to Shut Down in 2026

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For generations of Canadian radio listeners, hearing the steady tones of CHU was part of the soundscape of shortwave radio. Whether you were a ham operator checking propagation, a shortwave listener tuning the bands late at night, or simply someone fascinated by precision timekeeping, CHU represented something uniquely Canadian: a direct connection to the nation’s official atomic clock service.

Now, another chapter in Canadian radio history is coming to an end. This comes on the heels of earlier news that Environment and Climate Change Canada has permanently discontinued the Weatheradio Canada service .

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has announced that the shortwave broadcast of Canada’s official time signal station CHU will be discontinued on June 22, 2026. (National Research Council Canada)

For radio hobbyists, this feels strikingly similar to the recent announcement that Environment Canada’s Weatheradio VHF network will also be shut down in 2026. Both services were once essential infrastructure for Canadians living in remote areas, mariners, pilots, emergency communicators, and radio enthusiasts. Today, they are increasingly viewed as legacy systems in an era dominated by internet-connected devices and GPS-based timing.

The End of CHU: Canada’s Official Shortwave Time Signal Goes Silent in 2026

Still, their disappearance marks the end of an important era in Canadian radio.

What Was CHU?

National Research Council Canada station CHU was one of the world’s best-known shortwave time signal stations. Operating continuously from near Ottawa, Ontario, CHU transmitted official Canadian time signals on three frequencies:

3330 kHz

7850 kHz

14670 kHz

The station broadcast 24 hours a day using atomic-clock-derived timing signals. Listeners would hear precise one-second ticks, minute markers, bilingual voice announcements, and digital time codes. (National Research Council Canada)

Unlike ordinary broadcast stations, CHU served a technical purpose. Engineers, researchers, surveyors, broadcasters, radio operators, and hobbyists used it to synchronize clocks and calibrate equipment with remarkable precision.

If propagation conditions were good and delays were accounted for, CHU could deliver timing accuracy better than one millisecond. (National Research Council Canada)

For decades, CHU was Canada’s equivalent to the American WWV and WWVH time stations operated by NIST in the United States.

A Radio Service Dating Back More Than 100 Years

The roots of CHU stretch all the way back to the early 1920s. Experimental Canadian time broadcasts began in 1923 under the callsign 9CC before evolving into VE9OB and eventually CHU in 1938. (National Research Council Canada)

In many ways, CHU was one of the earliest examples of public technical broadcasting in Canada.

Long before the internet, GPS, or even reliable nationwide telephone service, accurate time distribution was critical. Railways, scientific observatories, broadcasters, navigators, and military operators all depended on synchronized clocks.

Shortwave radio solved that problem beautifully. A powerful signal from Ottawa could be heard across much of Canada and beyond, especially at night when HF propagation improved.

Over the decades, CHU modernized repeatedly:

quartz oscillator control in the 1930s

bilingual voice announcements in the 1960s

cesium atomic clocks in the 1960s and 70s

digital time code transmission for computer synchronization

frequency adjustments to avoid international interference

Yet despite all the upgrades, the core experience remained remarkably unchanged. Tune to CHU, hear the ticks, and know you were listening to Canada’s official time.

Why Is CHU Being Shut Down?

The NRC has not published a lengthy explanation, but the broader trend is obvious: modern timing infrastructure no longer depends on shortwave radio.

Today, nearly all timing synchronization occurs through:

GPS satellite systems

internet NTP servers

cellular networks

digital telecommunications infrastructure

The NRC already distributes official time online through internet time servers and telephone services, which will continue operating after CHU goes silent. (National Research Council Canada)

From a government perspective, maintaining aging HF transmission equipment for a shrinking audience likely became difficult to justify.

CHU also suffered from limitations that became more apparent over time:

inconsistent reception in western Canada

susceptibility to ionospheric conditions

urban RF noise interference

relatively low transmitter power compared to historic international standards

Even so, the station remained beloved within the radio community precisely because it was old-school radio technology still doing a real-world job.

Another Canadian Radio Institution Fades Away

The closure of CHU follows several other Canadian radio-era shutdowns.

In 2023, the...