[time-nuts] Looking for info about first true radio controlled clock

[Hal Murray]

michaelalombardi at comcast.net said:
> I'm trying to determine the first product that could automatically decode
> and display a digital time code.  Digital time codes were added to WWV in
> 1960 and WWVB in  1965.  This was before they were added to any satellite
> signals, or before they were added to LF stations in Europe, such as DCF77.
> Telegraphic time codes, of course, were around much earlier. 

Interesting question...

In roughly the late 1950s, I got a tour of Niagara Mohawk's control room.  
That was arranged by RAGS (Radio Amateurs of Greater Syracuse).   Niagara 
Mohawk was/is the local power company for central NY state   Wikipedia says 
they have been borged by National Grid.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Mohawk


I remember a pair of clocks (digital, I think) on the wall.  I wasn't enough 
of a time-nut (yet) to check out the details.  I'm pretty sure it was the 
obvious PLL, perhaps with a human in the loop.

Unfortunately, I don't remember where the reference clock came from.

Of course, maybe my memory is bogus.  I'm pretty sure that there was 
something time-nut related going on.   I'm petty sure that the idea of  
locking on to a reference clock seemed like a good one, even if I didn't know 
what a PLL was back then.


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