BPC, Rufzeichen eines chinesischen Zeitzeichensenders
The BPC is a radio station near Shangqiu that broadcasts time signals daily on 68.5 kilohertz to help synchronized clocks across a wide area. It stands as a tall antenna structure on open land and transmits for roughly 20 hours each day, encoding time information through changes in signal power.
The station was constructed in the early 2000s and began operating on April 25, 2002, as part of China's effort to modernize its timekeeping infrastructure. It was built through collaboration between Chinese science and technology companies working with the nation's national time center.
The station sits on open countryside at approximately 34.457 degrees north and 115.837 degrees east, where the antenna is clearly visible from a distance. Keep in mind the site itself is not open to the public, as access is restricted to technicians and engineers who visit for maintenance or monitoring purposes.
The signal is encoded through power reductions where the length of each reduction tells the receiver whether a data bit is zero or one. This elegant method allows receiving devices to extract every piece of time information from a continuous transmission, including seconds, minutes, hours, day of week, and full date.
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