[time-nuts] Fw: How to schedule a leap second on 5071A?

Tom Van Baak tvb at LeapSecond.com
Wed Dec 31 22:24:37 UTC 2008


Time-Nuts -- you still have a few hours to program your cesium
clocks for the leap second! Older clocks such as the HP 5060
and 5061 or FTS 4050 and 4060 don't have a mechanism to
add or delete a second, but most later model FTS, Datum, or
Symmetricom cesium clocks have a switch or a GUI to handle
leap seconds. See email below and attached photo for how to
update a 5071A.

As an aside, back in the early 90's when I first got into this
precision time hobby (see www.LeapSecond.com), "catching
the leap second" was something I very much looked forward to.

But now that I have a rather large collection of precision time
pieces, it turns out that leap seconds are a bit of a pain. It's
embarrassing to have a cesium clock sitting on a shelf, stable
to nanoseconds, but the time display is off by a second.

Anyway, over the next day please post reports of your own leap
second events; whether you have a cesium clock, a PC clock,
a GPSDO (HP,Agilent,Thunderbolt,Oncore,Fury,Jupiter,etc.).

A number of you did well during the last one a few years ago.
There are more subscribers on the list now so we might have
quite a variety of reports. No regular clocks bother with leap
seconds at all and a surprising number of laboratory or other
precision time instruments don't do it right. So catch them in
the act, if you can.

Too bad http://www.humanclock.com/ ignores leap seconds.

Thanks,
/tvb

<How to Watch a Leap Second>
http://leapsecond.com/notes/leap-watch.htm
<Time-Nuts -- Precise Time and Frequency for Amateurs>
http://leapsecond.com/time-nuts.htm

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Van Baak" <tvb at LeapSecond.com>
To: "Marat Konkanov" <marconzenti at ...>
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 12:21 AM
Subject: Re: How to schedule a leap second on 5071A?

> Hello Marat,
> 
> Thanks for your email; it is my first one from Kazakhstan.
> 
> You are correct; the last minute of Wednesday, December
> 31, 2008 will have 61 seconds instead of the usual 60. You
> can program your 5071A from the front panel menu using:
> Top -> CLOCK -> LEAPSEC -> MJD 54831 is 61 sec. See
> attached photo.
> 
> If you can, please take a picture of your 5071A when the
> leap second occurs later today and send it to me, OK?
> 
> Thanks,
> /tvb
> http://www.LeapSecond.com
> http://www.leapsecond.com/notes/leap-watch.htm
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Marat Konkanov" <marconzenti at ...>
> To: <tvb at LeapSecond.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 11:31 PM
> Subject: How to schedule a leap second on 5071A?
> 
>> Hello, Mr. Baak.
>>
>> My name is Marat. I am from Kazakhstan. I have got
>> Agilent 5071A. I know about the leap second in this year,
>> but I do not know how to schedule it.
>>
>> There are 2 values: 59 and 61 in 5071A MENU's. That
>> value should I choose? I think I must choose 61.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Marat Konkanov
>> 
>
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