[time-nuts] Yukon Energy causes time sync problems

Thomas A. Frank ka2cdk at cox.net
Sat Apr 10 15:53:34 UTC 2010


On Apr 10, 2010, at 11:31 AM, Eric Garner wrote:

> My question is why is it done that way at all? It seems impractical  
> in the extreme. Why not use a meter? Or the afore mentioned  
> vibrating reeds?
>
> What happens when the clock rates sync up again, since the wall  
> clock time will still be ahead/behind the sat clock? Do they reset  
> the wall clock? Or is it only the rate that matters?
>
> Given the sophistication of the rest of the network there must be a  
> reason.

They want our synchronous wall clocks to always be within a  
reasonable time to accurate.  So they use one such clock to act as a  
surrogate.

If the clocks have slowed down due to a drop in frequency, when the  
load goes away they need to run a bit faster to catch up.

In the US, at one time there was a specification that required the  
average over a (I think 24 hours) to be within three seconds.  It  
always was when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's.  Now I've seen  
it get as much as 4 seconds (once 5) out.

They're providing a service (at least they were...today, I wonder if  
they care?).

Tom Frank, KA2CDK





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