[time-nuts] HP 523B frequency counter & Sputnik

Magnus Danielson magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org
Thu Oct 4 16:06:52 EDT 2007


From: "Tom Van Baak" <tvb at LeapSecond.com>
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] HP 523B frequency counter & Sputnik
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 12:07:10 -0700
Message-ID: <001a01c806b9$c4594400$0800a8c0 at pc52>

> ); SAEximRunCond expanded to false
> Errors-To: time-nuts-bounces+magnus=rubidium.dyndns.org at febo.com RETRY
> 
> > Tom Van Baak wrote:
> >> A little known piece of Sputnik history...
> >>      http://www.hparchive.com/Journals/HPJ-1957-09-Sputnik.pdf
> 
> Brooke Clarke wrote:
> > I think it's more than fair to say sputnik is the grandfather of GPS.
> 
> Yeah, my first thought when I ran across that HPJ article was,
> wow, even the first satellite had -- an oscillator! The other thing
> to note is that the combination of Sputnik and Dr. Peterson (at
> Stanford) were the "space segment" and "user segment"; two
> phrases familiar to anyone reading introductions to GPS. No
> "control segment", however.
> 
> If 40-year old Sputnik (quartz in space) is the grandfather,

Ehem! 50-year old Sputnik. Please! Tom, you are a decade behind. I think you
need a better time-piece at home since none of them keep the time with a
MTIE of 10-year.

> is 30-year old NTS-2 (cesium in space) the father of GPS? See:
> 
> http://www.leapsecond.com/history/Ashby-Relativity.htm

Cheers,
Magnus



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