[time-nuts] Looking for info about first true radio controlled clock
Hal Murray
hmurray at megapathdsl.net
Tue Feb 22 08:10:57 UTC 2011
michaelalombardi at comcast.net said:
> I'm trying to determine the first product that could automatically decode
> and display a digital time code. Digital time codes were added to WWV in
> 1960 and WWVB in 1965. This was before they were added to any satellite
> signals, or before they were added to LF stations in Europe, such as DCF77.
> Telegraphic time codes, of course, were around much earlier.
Interesting question...
In roughly the late 1950s, I got a tour of Niagara Mohawk's control room.
That was arranged by RAGS (Radio Amateurs of Greater Syracuse). Niagara
Mohawk was/is the local power company for central NY state Wikipedia says
they have been borged by National Grid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Mohawk
I remember a pair of clocks (digital, I think) on the wall. I wasn't enough
of a time-nut (yet) to check out the details. I'm pretty sure it was the
obvious PLL, perhaps with a human in the loop.
Unfortunately, I don't remember where the reference clock came from.
Of course, maybe my memory is bogus. I'm pretty sure that there was
something time-nut related going on. I'm petty sure that the idea of
locking on to a reference clock seemed like a good one, even if I didn't know
what a PLL was back then.
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