
The Greenwich Time Signal (GTS), popularly known as the pips, is a series of six short tones broadcast at one second intervals by many BBC Radio stations.
The proposal for a time signal came from one Frank Hope-Jones in a radio talk in April 1923. It was agreed to broadcasting the Greenwich Standard Time with a chronometer at the Royal Observatory tripping a switch at five seconds to the hour to create those iconic pips – using a 1kHz oscillator. The time signal was first broadcast at 9.30 p.m. on 5 February 1924.
There are six pips (short beeps) in total, which occur on the 5 seconds leading up to the hour and on the hour itself. Each pip is a 1 kHz tone (about halfway between musical B5 and C6), the first five of which last a tenth of a second each while the final pip lasts half a second. The actual moment when the hour changes – the “on-time marker” – is at the very beginning of the last pip.
What’s new? It is still the trusted newsletter that we have delivered 242 times before! Though from now on it will be when the occasion demands rather than each and every week. The images are larger and there is now a sixth image to accompany the snippets section. This is the club, the lounge, the party, the launch, the news and the fun, so stay subscribed and pass it on!