U.S. Naval Observatory and AtomClock
Scott D Nolan
use you modem to dial a number in DC that once belonged
to the US Naval Observatory in NW DC. Their number
would answer the phone with a 1200 or 2400 baud modem
transmitting the exact time according to the Earth Clock.
The application would capture this time, and reset your
computer's system clock to the exact time.
Overkill? Perhaps. Fun? definitely.
Does anyone know if this service is still being provided?
If so what number do we have to ring?
I have lost the application that did this little wonder.
I am also curious about using a similar technique to
get the date from port 13 of a TCP/IP box (if there is
one hooked up to the Earth Clock).... how would I
find out the IP address to connect to?
Thanks in advance!
Scott Nolan
sno...@marge.hq.af.mil
Reece R. Pollack
Take a look at the NTP protocol before you start playing with
the daytime service. NTP will allow extremely accurate time
synchronization even across wide area networks. There are a
couple of NTP servers on the net which are synchronized by
atomic clocks, and quite a few synched to WWVB.
--
Reece R. Pollack
Senior Software Engineer
The Wollongong Group, Inc.
Harv R Laser
I'm using a version of AtomClock written by Art Steinmetz andthe
docs for it are dated 5/30/89. The phone number the program dials
is 1-202-653-0351. In fact I just used it a couple weeks ago and
the phone number for the US Naval Observatory in DC still answers
at that number (1200 baud) and sends the signals that AtomClock
cues on to reset your Amiga's system clock.
The FishXRef listing doesn't show AtomClock on any Fish disks but
it shouldn't be that difficult to find.
Harv
Randall Atkinson
% Take a look at the NTP protocol before you start playing with the
% daytime service. NTP will allow extremely accurate time
% synchronization even across wide area networks. There are a couple of
% NTP servers on the net which are synchronized by atomic clocks, and
% quite a few synched to WWVB.
Reece is quite correct. NTP is much more accurate than daytime or rdate
or most anything else and NTP implementations are free. The specification
for NTP is in several RFCs available online at various places (local to DC,
try ftp.uu.net) via anonymous ftp.
A list of known clocks on the Internet is in a file clocks.txt
(spelling?) on louie.udel.edu and sources for an NTP daemon (xntp3)
are also available there. Sundry other NTP stuff is there. There are
very high quality clocks on the net local to DC. The USENET newsgroup
comp.protocols.time.ntp is where discussion should head.
Brian Heil
>>There was an application named "AtomClock" that would
>>use you modem to dial a number in DC that once belonged
>>to the US Naval Observatory in NW DC. Their number
>>would answer the phone with a 1200 or 2400 baud modem
>>transmitting the exact time according to the Earth Clock.
>>sno...@marge.hq.af.mil
>
>
> I'm using a version of AtomClock written by Art Steinmetz andthe
> docs for it are dated 5/30/89. The phone number the program dials
> is 1-202-653-0351. In fact I just used it a couple weeks ago and
> the phone number for the US Naval Observatory in DC still answers
> at that number (1200 baud) and sends the signals that AtomClock
> cues on to reset your Amiga's system clock.
>
Has anybody tried this on a 2.04 3000 or 3000T? I tried and it rebooted my
machine. Not the desired result! It didn't even set the clock right!
Can someone fill us in on exactly what gets transmitted by the USNO? I'd like
to take a crack at writing a new version.
--
Brian Heil | A3000T Tom | Dietary Department
brian...@uiowa.edu | // Servo | The University of Iowa
bh...@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu | \X/ Rules | Hospitals and Clinics
Amigargnugen! It's what makes a computer an Amiga.
Jeremy Idol
SN > use you modem to dial a number in DC that once belonged
SN > to the US Naval Observatory in NW DC. Their number
SN > would answer the phone with a 1200 or 2400 baud modem
SN > transmitting the exact time according to the Earth Clock.
There is a dos program that does it called TIMESET. I use it as a nightly
event here on my BBS. The number for the service is 202-653-0351. That will
get the computer that spits the current time at you...
David Jones
>There was an application named "AtomClock" that would
>use you modem to dial a number in DC that once belonged
>to the US Naval Observatory in NW DC. Their number
>If so what number do we have to ring?
>I have lost the application that did this little wonder.
I use a program called NRC that connects to the atomic clock at
the National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada.
The phone number is 613-952-7729.
The time of day is output as a 300 bps bitstream. This is perhaps
the only thing stopping me from buying a ZyXEL modem (I hear that
there's no room in the ROM for 300 baud support).
--
David Jones, 6730 Tooney Drive, Orleans, Ontario K1C 6R4 CANADA
email: d...@qpoint.ocunix.on.ca Fido: 1:163/109.8
AMIGA: Advanced Multimedia with Interactive Graphics and Audio
Stratton D Nauman
that available from ftp.cica.indiana.edu that does what you want.
Ive also seen the same thing in a Telix add-on module.
Regards,
Dave.
John Boteler
>The time of day is output as a 300 bps bitstream. This is perhaps
>the only thing stopping me from buying a ZyXEL modem (I hear that
>there's no room in the ROM for 300 baud support).
I find this extremely impossible to believe. Zero-One Networking
has impelemented FAX, Caller*ID decoding, and many otherwise
unthinkable stuff in the modem. I am certain that it does
300 bps (as antiquated as that sounds). I suggest
that you check again, because the Zyxel is a nifty modem.
--
bo...@access.digex.com (John Boteler)
Steve Rose
DJ> I use a program called NRC that connects to the atomic clock at
DJ> the National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada.
DJ>
DJ> The phone number is 613-952-7729.
DJ>
DJ> The time of day is output as a 300 bps bitstream.
Sheesh! Why would you want to call all the way up there when we have a very
fine one at the Naval Dialup in DC? And they take 1200 to boot! :-)
Jim Edwards-Hewitt
bh...@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (Brian Heil) writes:
> Ha...@cup.portal.com (Harv R Laser) writes:
> > I'm using a version of AtomClock written by Art Steinmetz andthe
> > docs for it are dated 5/30/89. The phone number the program dials
> > is 1-202-653-0351. In fact I just used it a couple weeks ago and
> > the phone number for the US Naval Observatory in DC still answers
> > at that number (1200 baud) and sends the signals that AtomClock
> > cues on to reset your Amiga's system clock.
>
> Can someone fill us in on exactly what gets transmitted by the USNO? I'd
> like to take a crack at writing a new version.
It just sends the current time in ASCII, once a second. You can just call
it up with a comm program and see the format it uses.
-- Jim
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Edwards-Hewitt j...@visix.com | Work, work, work. Work, work, work
Visix Software Inc. | The greatest joy is the joy of duty
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Krzysztof Adamski
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Hope this helps.
Krzysztof