Rick, And the decade before that the hp house standard looked like this:
http://www.leapsecond.com/history/Benchmark.htm /tvb ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard (Rick) Karlquist" <[email protected]> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 6:23 AM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Time syncing WiFi routers using FM radio > > > On 11/12/2015 12:04 AM, Hal Murray wrote: >> >> I think it was HP that measured the signal in the Silicon Valley area. NBS >> published and distributed the offset. >> >> Does anybody remember that booklet? Did I get the story reasonably accurate? >> > > When I was hired by HP in 1979, my new boss (who was the head of the > Precision Frequency Sources R&D section) gave me a tour of the > Santa Clara Division site, including the "Metrology Room" which > was a glassed in area strategically located at the intersection > of the main east-west and north-south corridors in the complex. > Right next to the windows was a rack with several HP 5061A cesium > standards and various other non-descript rack chassis. There > was also a small TV set that was rack mounted. This was part > of the system to compare the cesium standards to the TV signal. > My boss described this as "the most accurate clock on the west > coast". Passersby were invited to set their watch according to > the front panel display on the 5061A. There was also a 5087A > distribution amplifier that supplied 10 MHz to my R&D section as > well as the various production lines. This was referred to as > the "house standard". My memory is a little hazy about the > transition from the TV signal to Loran C, which was fairly new > at that time. Later, they built a large time display for the > lobby that was synchronized to the 5061A in the metrology room. > > Interestingly, the Santa Clara site came with built in wall > clocks that were supposed to be centrally synchronized, as was > common in the 1960's. These were not connected in any way > to the "most accurate clock on the west coast" and were frequently > off by several minutes and were not even consistent among > themselves. So the joke was that we had both the most accurate clock > and the least accurate clock. > > Rick Karlquist N6RK > > _______________________________________________ > 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.
