FRANCE, End of the Long Waves 162 KHz, AM modulation
Transmitter Allouis
Latitude 47.168798, longitude 2.204326
2 towers of 350 meters (each tower weighs 600 tons)
Power output 2000 KW during the day and reduced to 1000 KW at night
France decided to stop its emissions in long wave AM to December 31, 2016 to 24H. The disappearance of amplitude, scheduled for the end of 2016, modulation should enable Radio France to 13 million euros in savings. She signs the end of an era.
However, the transmitter should be saved. Indeed, there is an atomic clock, giving hundreds of thousands of receiver’s French legal time.
Allouis, will retain a vocation scientific and legal. Since 1977 the Allouis transmitter is also used for the transmission of signals from an atomic clock]installed in the main building. It takes less than one second error in a million years. Time signals are issued in phase modulation
Their transmission format is similar to that of the DCF77.
Time signals allow access to French legal time and synchronize clocks. Reception modules are marketed for this purpose. The financing and maintenance of the system are provided since 2004 by the French Chamber of watchmaking and Microtechnology (MFHC). These signals are widely used in key sectors of industry requiring synchronization reliability: production and distribution of electricity, air transport, rail and road as well as for the management of public lighting, the synchronization of traffic lights crossroads, etc.