Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich

[Bill Hawkins]

Hi Morris,

The idea of the author of "A Brief History of Time" telling the time
briefly has a certain appeal. 
Can you share some construction details? Even a parts list would be
useful.

Thanks,
Bill Hawkins


-Original Message-
From: Morris Odell
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 5:32 PM

This is a terrific thread. I have been to Greenwich too and also some of
the clock exhibits in London. There's a beautiful pendulum master and
slave clock set up in the British Museum, and there's an original huge
Caesium (British spelling!)  frequency standard in the Kensington
Science Museum. 
The last time I was there in 2013 there was also a special feature
exhibition about Alan Turing and the Bletchley code breakers.  I did
pass through Bletchley station on the train about 20 years ago when I
was in the UK but regrettably didn't have the time to stop there. I can
recommend the climb up the hill at Greenwich to anyone - it's definitely
worth the effort. 
They didn't allow photography of the Harrison clocks but I did manage to
sneak one or two before the minder got to me :-)

I'd love to have a genuine electro-optical speaking clock. There's one
in the Australian Telecom museum not far from where I live. There's also
a terrific display of a complete electromechanical telephone exchange
including a speaking clock in the telecommunications museum in Stockholm
but as I don't speak Swedish I couldn't understand what it was saying.
I've just finished making a speaking clock using more modern technology,
it uses a 30 year old speech synthesizer chip and sounds just like
Stephen Hawking.

Morris
Melbourne, Australia


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Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich

[Jim Harman]

Those in Australia might want to check out the traveling "ships, clocks,
and stars" exhibit at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney
through Oct 30. I saw this earlier this year when it was in Mystic
Connecticut and found it very interesting. It is also appropriate for non
Time Nuts. It presents a good overview of the quest for longitude at sea
and features beautiful working replicas of Harrison's clocks.

On Wed, Jul 6, 2016, 7:46 PM Morris Odell  wrote:

> This is a terrific thread. I have been to Greenwich too and also some of
> the
> clock exhibits in London. There's a beautiful pendulum master and slave
> clock set up in the British Museum, and there's an original huge Caesium
> (British spelling!)  frequency standard in the Kensington Science Museum.
> The last time I was there in 2013 there was also a special feature
> exhibition about Alan Turing and the Bletchley code breakers.  I did pass
> through Bletchley station on the train about 20 years ago when I was in the
> UK but regrettably didn't have the time to stop there. I can recommend the
> climb up the hill at Greenwich to anyone - it's definitely worth the
> effort.
> They didn't allow photography of the Harrison clocks but I did manage to
> sneak one or two before the minder got to me :-)
>
> I'd love to have a genuine electro-optical speaking clock. There's one in
> the Australian Telecom museum not far from where I live. There's also a
> terrific display of a complete electromechanical telephone exchange
> including a speaking clock in the telecommunications museum in Stockholm
> but
> as I don't speak Swedish I couldn't understand what it was saying.  I've
> just finished making a speaking clock using more modern technology, it uses
> a 30 year old speech synthesizer chip and sounds just like Stephen Hawking.
>
> Morris
> Melbourne, Australia
> -
>Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2016 10:42:19 +1000
> From: Jim Palfreyman 
> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> 
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich
>
> Speaking of "speaking clocks" - here's two photos of the ones that used to
> be used in Australia:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_clock#Australia
>
> The top photo with rotating optical disks is a gorgeous piece of machinery.
>
> The one below - I have one, and I keep it running.
>
> :-)
>
>
>
> ___
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
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>
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Re: [time-nuts] BPO Speaking clock articles

[Richard W. Solomon]

IIRC, Radio Shack sold a "Talking Clock" back in the 70's. 
A lot of folks used them to announce the time on local FM 
Repeaters.

73, Dick, W1KSZ

-Original Message-
From: time-nuts [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Dave Brown
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 2:29 PM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: [time-nuts] BPO Speaking clock articles

For those who expressed interest-

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tractorb/BPO%20speaking%20clocks/

DaveB, NZ

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Re: [time-nuts] Divide by 3

[Nick Sayer via time-nuts]

> On Jun 8, 2016, at 9:59 AM, Charles Steinmetz  wrote:
> 
> Nick wrote:
> 
>> I’m contemplating trying my GPS board with an FE-405B. That’s a different 
>> kettle of fish, but at the end of that, if I’m successful, one of the goals 
>> would be to be able to use it for the external reference of my 53220A. 
>> Unfortunately, 15 MHz isn’t one of the options - only 1, 5 and 10.
>> 
>> So I did some googling and found a divide-by-3 circuit using flip-flops, and 
>> then designed a board for it
> 
> You can achieve substantially lower jitter (phase noise) with a regenerative 
> divider, which also allows you to divide by 3/2 for a 10MHz output.  I've 
> built several like that, and they work extremely well.
> 
> There are simpler divide-by-three logic circuits (generally, the simpler the 
> circuit the closer to an exact 50% duty cycle and the lower the jitter).  See 
> the attached image for one approach.
> 

I got the boards back, and Charles’ version with just two D FFs and a single 
XOR works perfectly. It works even without the delay line he indicated (sample 
size 1, FWIW). The version with the three D FFs and 3 NORs works just fine too, 
but of course it’s not as small as Charles’.


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[time-nuts] eLoran Test

[paul swed]

The Wildwood, NJ eLoran transmitter will be continuously broadcasting from
0900 (EST) on 29 July 2016 through 1200 (EST) on 15 August 2016. Wildwood
will be broadcasting as 8970 Master and Secondary most of the time but
occasionally may operate at other rates.
Regards
Paul
WB8TSL
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Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich

[Morris Odell]

This is a terrific thread. I have been to Greenwich too and also some of the 
clock exhibits in London. There's a beautiful pendulum master and slave 
clock set up in the British Museum, and there's an original huge Caesium 
(British spelling!)  frequency standard in the Kensington Science Museum. 
The last time I was there in 2013 there was also a special feature 
exhibition about Alan Turing and the Bletchley code breakers.  I did pass 
through Bletchley station on the train about 20 years ago when I was in the 
UK but regrettably didn't have the time to stop there. I can recommend the 
climb up the hill at Greenwich to anyone - it's definitely worth the effort. 
They didn't allow photography of the Harrison clocks but I did manage to 
sneak one or two before the minder got to me :-)


I'd love to have a genuine electro-optical speaking clock. There's one in 
the Australian Telecom museum not far from where I live. There's also a 
terrific display of a complete electromechanical telephone exchange 
including a speaking clock in the telecommunications museum in Stockholm but 
as I don't speak Swedish I couldn't understand what it was saying.  I've 
just finished making a speaking clock using more modern technology, it uses 
a 30 year old speech synthesizer chip and sounds just like Stephen Hawking.


Morris
Melbourne, Australia
-
  Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2016 10:42:19 +1000
From: Jim Palfreyman 
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement

Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich

Speaking of "speaking clocks" - here's two photos of the ones that used to
be used in Australia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_clock#Australia

The top photo with rotating optical disks is a gorgeous piece of machinery.

The one below - I have one, and I keep it running.

:-)



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[time-nuts] BPO Speaking clock articles

[Dave Brown]

For those who expressed interest-

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tractorb/BPO%20speaking%20clocks/

DaveB, NZ

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[time-nuts] HP 5060-0049 extender board

[Mark Sims]

Is it an edge-card type connector?  If so, how many pins and what spacing?   It 
might be possible to use or modify one of the extenders that I made for the 
HP5370, Tek TM500 stuff,  and some other equipment.

  
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Re: [time-nuts] python or matlab/octave for Keysight instruments?

[jimlux]

On 7/4/16 2:26 PM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:


In message 
, Keenan Tims writes:


I've had good luck with python-ivi:


I wrote and use this:

https://github.com/bsdphk/pylt

Very basic, works with the Prologix GPIB adapter but general enough to
also use other carriers (USB, TCP/IP etc)



Thanks to all who replied..
I got the PyVisa working fairly easily on a mac
I'm skeptical about how easy it will be on Ubuntu
I'd expect it to be fairly straightforward on Windows

As with all these things, the "platform dependency" comes in when you 
talk to the interface hardware, and there's a fair number of packages 
out there that say "platform independent" (which, being in python, they 
sort of are) but which depend on a underlying interface layer which may 
or may not exist (e.g. Keysight libraries for Windows only)



I'm looking into the USBTMC stuff next as a low end simpler approach 
(which is what phk's pylt uses, as well as python-ivi.

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Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich

[Peter Torry via time-nuts]

The original speaking clock ( in use from 1936 to 1963) has been 
restored to working order and is on show at the British Horological 
Institute at Upton Hall near Newark (UK). Speaking clock N0 2 that 
replaced No 1 is quartz controlled and also on view at Upton hall.  If 
anyone would like details of them just let me know.


Peter Torry



On 06/07/2016 06:20, Dave Brown wrote:
I have a pdf of a POEEJ article on the speaking clock that came into 
service 24 July 1936 if anyone is interested. I suspect this predates 
the one under discussion? I also have a two part article on the Mark 2 
built in the UK for Australia.(mid 1950s)

DaveB, NZ






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[time-nuts] HP 5060-0049 extender board

[Perry Sandeen via time-nuts]

List,
WTB for HP 105. please contact off list if you have one for sale.
Regards,
Perrier
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Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich

[Dave Brown]

I have a pdf of a POEEJ article on the speaking clock that came into service 
24 July 1936 if anyone is interested. I suspect this predates the one under 
discussion? I also have a two part article on the Mark 2 built in the UK for 
Australia.(mid 1950s)

DaveB, NZ


- Original Message - 
From: "Alan Melia" 
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 


Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 10:17 AM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich


Hi Clint I think when I discussed this last a few years ago with the 
speaking clock designer and David Rooney the man responsible for the time 
gallery at Greenwich. The clock is an early quartz unit, probably made at 
the then Post Office Reseach Labs at Dollis Hill in NW London.  The clock 
is quite a beast ! It was found in a skip (Dumpster) having been donated 
to a university in the late 1940s, and was refurbished by a local 
enthusiast for David. He did a good job because I believe he had no access 
to any documents or circuits. I tried to find some information but it 
would seem the archive has been lost (vandals !!) It probably contains 
strange things like neon ring counters :-))


Alan
G3NYK

- Original Message - 
From: "Clint Jay" 
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 


Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2016 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich



They also have TIM the speaking clock which has a rack mounted  atomic
standard.
On 5 Jul 2016 21:01, "John Dalziel - crashposition" 


wrote:

I would also recommend the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers collection 
at

the Science Museum. It’s a great collection and they have some of
Harrison's wooden long case clocks as well as his final chronometer, H5.


http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/plan_your_visit/exhibitions/clockmakers-museum


John Dalziel
computus.org


Message: 4
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2016 18:31:35 -0400
From: Dave Martindale 
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement

Subject: [time-nuts] Visiting Greenwich
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I am in London England at the moment, playing tourist with the rest of 
my

family. I want one day to be a visit to the National Maritime Museum at
Greenwich, which includes the Royal Observatory Greenwich. I am
particularly interested in seeing Harrison's H1 through H4, plus other
high-precision mechanical timekeepers (pendulum clocks, etc).

I know they are at the NMM - their web site shows some of them. But 
where
are they located on the site? The NMM has a large main building down 
near

the Thames, while the Royal Observatory and related buildings are on the
top of a hill further inland in Greenwich Park. Are the chronometers and
other precision timekeepers on display somewhere in the Royal 
Observatory,

or down in the main NMM building? I've spent an hour or two browsing web
sites without finding this particular bit of information.

I figure there must be list members who have visited the NMM, and know
where the precision timekeepers are actually displayed.

Thanks,
Dave
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