Government asks who still relies on the MSF radio time signal used by self-setting clocks
A call for evidence from the national timing office wants to know which services and devices depend on the 60kHz broadcast from Cumbria, and what users would need from it in future.
The government has opened a call for evidence on the MSF radio time signal, the broadcast that tells radio-controlled clocks and watches across the UK what time it is.
The exercise is being run by the National Positioning, Navigation and Timing Office, part of the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. It was published on Monday, the day after the clocks went back, and closes at 11:59pm on 22 December 2026.
A call for evidence is an earlier and looser stage than a formal consultation. Rather than asking for views on a set proposal, it asks people and organisations to describe how they use something so that officials can work out what, if anything, needs to change.
Long wave from Anthorn
MSF is a 60kHz long-wave transmission carrying the UK's civil time, broadcast 24 hours a day from Anthorn Radio Station in Cumbria. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the country's measurement institute, is responsible for it and checks it against its own atomic time scale, correcting it when needed. Babcock International transmits the signal under contract to NPL.
The broadcast reaches the whole of the UK and much of northern and western Europe. A clock with a suitable receiver decodes the time and date from it, which is why many such clocks changed to Greenwich Mean Time on Sunday morning without anyone touching them.
The questions
Officials want to know how the signal is used today and which services, systems and products depend on it, how much demand there is now and is likely to be in future, and how far users depend on it. They also ask what benefits or unique capabilities it offers compared with other sources of time, and what stops organisations using it as part of a more resilient timing set-up.
That last point reflects wider government interest in timing resilience. Many systems take their time from satellite navigation signals, which can be jammed or disrupted, and a ground-based radio signal is one of the alternatives.
Outages and reception
NPL already switches MSF off from time to time for maintenance on the masts and antennas at Anthorn. This year it scheduled full shutdowns on 12 March, from 29 June to 17 July, and on 10 September, with another planned for 10 December. Clocks keep running during these breaks but can drift slightly until the signal returns.
NPL says most reception problems are caused by local electrical interference or by metal in the building, such as a steel frame, rather than by the transmitter.
Responses are being collected through an online survey linked from the GOV.UK page, alongside a privacy notice explaining how answers will be used.
