BPC is the callsign of a

time signal A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day. Church bells or voices announcing hours of prayer gave way to automatically operated chimes on public clocks; however, a ...

broadcasting from the BPC Shangqiu Low-Frequency Time-Code Radio Station, cooperatively constructed by the

National Time Service Center The National Time Service Center (NTSC; ) has the task of generating, maintaining and broadcasting standard time in China. It is located in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. Its predecessor was the Shaanxi Astronomy Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Scien ...

of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

and Xi’an Gaohua Technology Co., Lt

since April 25, 2002. BPC transmits a time signal on 68.5 kHz, which can be used for synchronizing radio controlled clocks. As opposed to other time signal transmitters, the signal format is not published openly; a special license is required. The transmission site is situated near

Shangqiu Shangqiu (), alternately romanized as Shangkiu, is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Anhui to the northeast and southeast respectivel ...

Henan Province Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

at . BPC broadcasts at 90 kW for 20 hours per day, with a 4-hour break from 05:00–09:00 (China Standard Time) daily (21:00–1:00 UTC). BPC includes both conventional amplitude modulated time code and additional spread-spectrum time code, about which little is known.

Time code

References

External links

低频时码授时
from the National Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences Time signal radio stations Radio stations established in 2002 2002 establishments in China {{radio-comm-stub