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

Chuck Harris cfharris at erols.com
Wed Feb 23 05:03:30 UTC 2011


Time code was being used by the government for all sorts of exciting
things, like recording A-bomb blasts.  I'm sure the first variant was
used on conventional fast spooled movie film.

-Chuck Harris

jimlux wrote:
> On 2/22/11 12:12 PM, Magnus Danielson wrote:
>> Hi Jim!
>>
>> On 02/22/2011 02:34 PM, jimlux wrote:
>>> On 2/21/11 10:12 PM, Michael Lombardi wrote:
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>
>>> the IRIG standaards started in the late 50s, and I'm pretty sure that
>>> they used time code when recording on instrumentation recorders earlier
>>> than that. You'd record a bunch of analog signals using FM on a
>>> multitrack recorder, and because the playback speed varies and the tape
>>> stretches, you need something to recover actual timing.
>>
>> The NASA 36 bit time-code seems to pre-date both IRIG and WWV broadcast.
>
> NASA didn't exist until 1958, but I suspect that there were folks doing
> time code and it just came along for the ride.



More information about the time-nuts mailing list