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

[Harry]

IRIG stands for "InterRange Instrument Group which set the standards for the Atlantic Missile range, Pacific Missile Range and White Sands. I beleive that White Sands was the generator of most of the specs. I started working at the "Cape" in 1959 working on the Atlas.

This was the days when most teleletry was analog. The inital data for a launch was printed out on multi-channel paper with the time on edge of the paper which was somewhere 18 inches wide with 8 channels of analog data. Don't nail me down on the exact data since it's been a long time.As I recall, the IRIG time codes were transferred all over the Cape to all contractors. IRIG B time code was amplitude modulated on a 1 KHz tone. 

73, Harry, W3IIT (W9HQT then)


-----Original Message-----
>From: jimlux <jimlux at earthlink.net>
>Sent: Feb 22, 2011 11:53 PM
>To: time-nuts at febo.com
>Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Looking for info about first true radio controlled clock
>
>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.
>
>>
>> The original WWV broadcast where in fact done in the NASA 36 bit time-code.
>>
>> "STANDARD FREQUENCY AND TIME SERVICES"
>> http://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/1746.pdf
>>
>> I have yeat not found the NASA time code history or for that matter the
>> NASA standard for it.
>
>funny, now that you mention it.. we use NASA 36 bit in places at work, 
>but, all my stuff uses IRIG in one form or another.
>
>CCSDS time codes reference NASA 36 bit.. maybe a reference it's in the 
>back of the CCSDS standard.
>
>>
>>> the first instrumentation recorders were used in the late 40s or early
>>> 50s
>>>
>>> there's also a famous spread spectrum system used during WW2 with
>>> identical phono records with random noise, but I think those were sync'd
>>> by hand.
>>
>> They where synced by hand, but the turn-tables ran on synchronous motors
>> locked to a common frequency broadcast, so the system had an external
>> (common) frequency steering.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Magnus
>>
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