Many radio stations had at least one Western Union clock that generated a tone at the top of the hour. The clock was designed so that it ran just a slight bit fast. As the top of the hour approached, the second hand would be held momentarily at 00 seconds, then when the signal came down the line from Western Union, the second hand was released and at the same time a relay was closed to produce the hour "tone." Good stuff... 73, Don, W4WJ In a message dated 5/19/2011 11:21:20 A.M. Central Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Is anyone else old enough to remember when you would hear on the radio "Time at the tone, 5 o'clock. Beep." The tone was anywhere from half a second to one second long and it might have been hard to pin down if the beginning or the end of the tone was 5 o'clock but it was probably within a couple of seconds accuracy which was plenty good for setting your watch or the kitchen clock. Why don't you hear that now a days? Digital TV has latency which is dependant on the equipment used by the cable or satellite company and is somewhat variable between receiver manufacturers. The engineer of our local public radio station told me that digital radio has 7 seconds delay. When I asked the station manager if there were any plans to run studio time 7 seconds ahead of real time so listeners would get accurate time he just frowned. Regards. Max. K 4 O D S. Email: [email protected] Transistor site http://www.funwithtransistors.net Vacuum tube site: http://www.funwithtubes.net Music site: http://www.maxsmusicplace.com To subscribe to the fun with transistors group send an email to. [email protected] To subscribe to the fun with tubes group send an email to, [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Rooke" <[email protected]> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 10:45 AM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Personal time keeping... >A number of years back the London Science Museum used to sell an Einstein > Relative Time Watch that just had the hours hand and was marked around the > dial, 1'ish, 2'ish, 3'ish, etc. I bought my ex one, don't know if she > still > has it. It's not the same as the new ones I have seen via Googling as I > think this was much more fun. > > Steve > > On 20 May 2011 02:55, Burt I. Weiner <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Chuck, >> >> In another post I spoke about spending a few days with a fellow from >> DATUM. >> A lot of our idle chit-chat was about accuracy in timing and GPS >> vs.other >> off-air standards and propagation. He told me about his background in >> the >> military and precision measurements and about a watch he used to have >> that >> displayed in GPS seconds - fascinating stuffs. I noticed that he wasn't >> wearing a watch and I commented on that. He told me that he'd spent a >> good >> part of his life knowing precisely what time it was and still does the >> same >> thing in his work at DATUM. He then went on to comment that he was tired >> of >> knowing exactly what time it was and he personally got sick of knowing >> the >> exact time. He also said that looking at the kitchen clock once a day >> was >> close enough for him, that it reduced the stress on him. >> >> Burt >> >> At 07:43 AM 5/19/2011, [email protected] wrote >> >>> My personal preference is for highly jeweled totally mechanical >>> automatic winding wristwatches. My hobby compels me to have >>> high accuracy time and frequency around, but my life just >>> doesn't run with that kind of precision. >>> >>> -Chuck Harris >>> >> >> Burt I. Weiner Associates >> Broadcast Technical Services >> Glendale, California U.S.A. >> [email protected] >> www.biwa.cc >> K6OQK >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, go to >> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. >> > > > > -- > Steve Rooke - ZL3TUV & G8KVD > The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. - > Einstein > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
