Atomic Clock

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bennie

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I have always had an obsession with accurate time.

I bought an atomic clock, that is programmed by the world time standard WWV from Greenwich England.

The accuracy is assured to be one second in three thousand years. I guess that is the best I can do :(

I like it so much I bought five more of them. I set them close to the real time and the next morning all of them were exactly the same even to the second.

I plan on giving them to my kids for a present.
 
Re: Atomic Clock

The time is acutually set by the us naval obsertory. they have about numerous clocks and check one against the other. Go here
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/
and find out they have 61 clocks!
It amazing you can get an atomic clock for about $20.
 
Re: Atomic Clock

Tom: I paid 23 dollars each.
I worked on the master timer for the nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, in 1958.

This timer had WWV signal injection. The time delay of the signal, when transmitted and then received was too much for the scientists. We ended up with an old ship clock from the Navy.

A million dollar timer set by a wind up clock :D
 
Re: Atomic Clock

Free! - Atomic Clock Sync utility
This program will connect to one of the time servers operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States, and will compare the time of your computer with the time on the servers operated by the NIST. This program will then display the difference between your system and the servers and if greater than 15 seconds, it will offer you the option of adjusting your PC by the displayed amount.

The overall uncertainty in this comparison should be no worse than +/- 5 seconds under all circumstances and will be substantially less than this value in most cases.
 
Re: Atomic Clock

Bennie, your obsession with time is interesting. In telephone companies we use-to-use cesium clocks for timing. But those days are gone everything is on GPS. If you want accurate time look at your digital cell phone. All the new models have GPS receivers built in them so 911 or big brother can locate you.

[ August 26, 2003, 09:07 AM: Message edited by: dereckbc ]
 
Re: Atomic Clock

I read a book several years ago that was great, about an inventor who designed a clock that would be small enough and accurate enough to keep time on the seas (during Columbus' time). This was critical for early explorers because they needed the time at the home port so they could calculate how far west (longitude) they had traveled. Latitude was no problem. Take the angle from the sea to the North Star and you have it. Longitude was a completely different ball of wax. You could have a good idea of your longitude if you could observe that the clock that was set for high noon at port read 11 AM when the sun crested at your location. You'd know you were 1/24th of the way around or 15-degrees longitude from home port. It's amazing how much they'd have loved to have a $2 watch back then.

Scott
 
Re: Atomic Clock

The sun dials never caught on due to not being able to fit a persons wrist. :roll:

I gave one clock to my grandson, he is thrilled by the fact it can not be set to the wrong time.
Also there is internal logic for changing the time twice a year, for daylight savings.
 
Re: Atomic Clock

My LaCrosse Technologies Radio Controlled Atomic Watch cost me $49. I love it except it has no LIGHT! I cannot see it in movie theatres, at night, etc. That really sucks! Who would have thought a pretty nice watch would come without a light!

My watch is updated nightly from Ft. Collins, CO if I put my watch in an East facing window at my house. It may update at other times, but an East facing window works best. It keeps up with DST and it can quickly be changed to show the proper time in any time zone in the world. It would require manual updating if it gets out of range of Ft. Collins. The range is 2000 miles from Ft. Collins.

I have been gigged by faulty watches in the past. Once that happens a couple of times you learn to appreciate a watch that can set itself and be accurate.

If you decide to buy one of these watches be sure to get a backlight! :D
 
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