[time-nuts] GPS locked 60Hz?

Tom Harris celephicus at gmail.com
Sun Jul 28 05:11:21 EDT 2013


My mate worked in telecom in the 70's where the backup diesel generators
used exactly the same method. Due to a fluke a spike or something blew all
3 globes (Australia is 3 phase). My mate assumed the generator was synced
up and closed the breaker. When he picked himself up from the other side of
the room the breaker had exploded and the driveshaft of the diesel (to use
his words) was twisted up like a dishcloth. He took a long time to live
this down.


On 28 July 2013 09:46, Chris Albertson <albertson.chris at gmail.com> wrote:

> The old time (stone age) method of setting the phase of a power generator
> was easy:  Get an ordinary light bulb and connect it between the grid and
> your generator,  Adjust the phase of your generator until the bulb goes
> dim.  When the bulb is 100% dead out then flip the switch and connect the
> load.   They had it a lot easier before there were computers and good
> instruments.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 2:52 PM, Bob Camp <lists at rtty.us> wrote:
>
> > Hi
> >
> > The guys who put up the original papers were from Quebec Hydro. Their
> > issue was trying to set things up independent of the grid and dispatch
> > power to where ever it was needed. Once they demonstrated it was
> possible a
> > lot of other people became interested. Oddly enough at dinner I brought
> up
> > the possibility of using Loran-C to them. Their commit was "have you ever
> > tried to get 100 KHz past the field of a hydro station --- no way!!!".
> > Actually the last part of it was in French, but that's as close as I an
> get
> > ….
> >
> > Bob
> >
> > On Jul 27, 2013, at 4:10 PM, Bob Stewart <bob at evoria.net> wrote:
> >
> > > But wouldn't it be easier to set phase if they had a known, good
> > frequency?  Oh.  Frequency isn't the issue, is it?  If you have to supply
> > to the west coast for a few hours and then plug into the east coast to
> > purchase power, you might have to do a large phase shift between the two.
> >  And after some arbitrary timeframe doing still more bouncing around you
> > could be off in frequency as measured locally in the long term.
> > >
> > > This idea just hit me because the Tymeter uses a synchronous clock
> > drive.  And giving it some thought, I guess it's not that big a deal if
> you
> > start with a cheap UPS and a good clock.
> > >
> > > Bob
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> ________________________________
> > >> From: Bob Camp <lists at rtty.us>
> > >> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement <
> > time-nuts at febo.com>
> > >> Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2013 2:42 PM
> > >> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPS locked 60Hz?
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Hi
> > >>
> > >> If you go back into the Frequency Control Symposium papers from the
> > 1980's there are several of them from the power line people on using GPS
> to
> > track 60 Hz. They have kept at it ever since. Their main interest is in
> > tracking phase across a large network, rather than locking up generators
> > (for accurate time). Knowing phase lets them better balance power flow(s)
> > and thus save money.
> > >>
> > >> Bob
> > >>
> > >> On Jul 27, 2013, at 3:11 PM, Tim Shoppa <tshoppa at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> http://leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-nixie/ shows a KVARZ CH1-75
> Active
> > >>> Hydrogen Maser (5 MHz) through a HP 3325B synthesizer (60 Hz) through
> > a HP
> > >>> 6827A bipolar power supply (100 VAC) to generate a 60 Hz mains.
> > >>>
> > >>> At http://leapsecond.com/pages/mains/ he also shows the 60Hz grid
> > >>> meandering forward and back plus or minus 5 or 10 seconds over a
> month
> > in
> > >>> 2004.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 1:54 PM, Bob Stewart <bob at evoria.net> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> My Tymeter just clacked over to 50 minutes after, and I had a sudden
> > >>>> vision of GPS locking its input to 60 Hz, like in the good old days
> > when
> > >>>> the power companies cared about frequency.  =)  Has anyone actually
> > gone
> > >>>> that far in their time-madness?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Bob - AE6RV
> > >>>> _______________________________________________
> > >>>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> > >>>> To unsubscribe, go to
> > >>>> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > >>>> and follow the instructions there.
> > >>>>
> > >>> _______________________________________________
> > >>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> > >>> To unsubscribe, go to
> > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > >>> and follow the instructions there.
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> > >> To unsubscribe, go to
> > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > >> and follow the instructions there.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> > > To unsubscribe, go to
> > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > > and follow the instructions there.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> > To unsubscribe, go to
> > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > and follow the instructions there.
> >
>
>
>
> --
>
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.
>



-- 

Tom Harris <celephicus at gmail.com>


More information about the time-nuts mailing list