On 7/24/12 8:48 PM, ed breya wrote:
I recently picked up an interesting early 1970s vintage WWVB receiver,
Model 630, made by "Specific Products" of Monrovia, CA - that's what the
adhesive sticker on the front says, and the name "1 MHz Time Base
Calibrator (Utilizes WWVB accuracy of 2 parts in 10^11)." There's also a
pair of banana jacks labeled "1 MHz Input," a row of incandescent lamps
for a signal strength indicator, and a power switch. The back says
"Model LF 60S," and has six RCA jacks for "100 kHz Output," "60 kHz
Output," "Recorder Output," "Antenna Input," "(divide sign) 10 Output,"
and "Time Code Output." There's also the line cord and a +12VDC output
RCA jack.
I'm wondering if anyone knows anything or sources of info about this
thing. With all the recent talk of WWVB changing to spread-spectrum, it
may be useless anyway, except for some parts, but I'm curious about
whether it's worth saving.
Well, a bit of casual googling shows that Specfic Products made lots of
this kind of thing, and they are shown as being in, variously, Los
Angeles, Woodland Hills, and Monrovia. Technically Woodland Hills is in
the city of LA, but in any case, they seem to have moved a bit.
I found a reference in a USGS report
Specific Products, 1965, NBS time code decoder chart: Bulletin Number
226, 21051 Costanso St., Woodland Hills, Calif.
Now, as it happens, that's the address (today) of someone's garage.
They seem to have been a popular item for generating timecode in various
recorders for USGS (turned up several mentions in papers from the 60s
and 70s recording things like volcanic eruptions and the like)
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