[BC] Western Union Clocks

[Ron Youvan]

   David Kaye wrote:

> --- On Fri, 6/29/12, rfoxwor1 at tampabay.rr.com<rfoxwor1 at tampabay.rr.com>  wrote:

>> the newscast took air at xx.55 when the hourly clock drift
>> was greatest.

> I'm really mystified by these WU clocks people are talking about.  By the 1960s most clocks had synchronous motors, locking into the 60Hz line frequency.  While the freq might drift a bit, conventional clocks kept time so well (at least here in the SF Bay Area where we have Pacific Gas & Electric) that a clock need only be corrected every few days at the very most.

> So, why didn't stations just use WWV and conventional clocks as we did?

   Until the NBS moved to CO you could NOT receive WWV 24 house a day in many places.
When they were in Maryland I got them pretty good near Chicago, when I moved to Florida (in 1960) I 
could only receive them sometimes, since they moved to CO I can get them more often than I could 
near Chicago, but there are still plenty of times that I can not find them.  As a HAM I use WWV as 
we use beacons to understand when the bands are operable.  They are in  my transceiver's memory 
slots.  Somewhere between 1950 and 1960 Florida got on the "national grid," before that the 
frequency of our power's 60 Hz was not perfect.
   Having your clocks set to an external reference allows you to worry about other more profitable 
things.

-- 
Ron KA4INM