Broadcasting Atomic Clocks (was Re: hayes chronograph)

From: Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu Jul 26 09:08:47 2001

--- Iggy Drougge <optimus_at_canit.se> wrote:
> Ethan Dicks skrev:
>
> >Does anyone have the AT protocol spec for it? I've always been interested
> >in the concept of a timekeeper that I could read/set from machines that
> >were not ethernet/NTP-capable...
>
> I don't know what it's like in your part of the hemisphere...

Not as nice as that...

> but there's an
> atomic clock down in Germany which broadcasts its time. IUt's quite easy to
> obtain clocks which rely on its signal

I have one. It's an add-on for a car with internal and external temp
sensors. I picked it up when I was in Munich last year and didn't
realize that you _can't_ set the time manually. I was figuring that it'd
be fun to have a thermometer, and the fact that we don't have the same
clock transmitter in the States wouldn't be a problem. It is. I have a
car thermometer that knows what time it is in Germany.

> Anyway, that should be the optimal timekeeping device, assuming you can come
> up with the hardware and that you're within reach of the transmitter.

There is a transmitter in Colorado, but I am not aware of any hobby projects
to take advantage of it. They did start building VCRs that could set
themselves off of a time signal broadcast over PBS stations, but I think I
heard something about that being a failed program and being discontinued
at some point. When I heard about it, it suggested to me that if the
atomic clock radio signal had good propgation characteristics, they would
have used that instead of a time signal from a TV station, but perhaps it's
more an issue of Daylight Savings Time.

-ethan



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Received on Thu Jul 26 2001 - 09:08:47 BST

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