RADIO CONTROLLED CLOCKS | WATCHES

For many years man has been obsessed with the recording of time, from the first sundials to the elaborate gear driven pieces which were later developed. There arose a need for a device which would have an unequaled accuracy for the measure of the units of time. A device which would not fall prey to such trivial things as clouds covering the sun in the sky or faulty mechanisms which fall prey to degradation of use over time. This device would later be invented and called The Atomic Clock.

Thru many years of testing and development for a new and much more reliable way of time keeping, arose the Atomic Clock developed by the National Bureau of Standards in 1949. Using the ammonia molecule as its source for the progress of time. Thus resulted the beginnings based on the ideas of Isidor Rabi, unfortunately at the time of its creation the accuracy was just a little above par of the existing time keeping devices of its day.

In 1957, arose the new and improved version of the Atomic Clock using the cesium atom, after the first model another was created using the same atomic choice. Later in 1960 the accuracy was so improved that the results were adopted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the keeping of time.

In 1967 the cesium atoms accuracy was recognized internationally for the measure of the unit of time. Much of our modern life has now come to depend of these creations from the beginnings of the atomic age. The Atomic Clock forms the basis for the time keeping of the world, our transportation, communication, computers, and power facility’s all use the Atomic clock to one degree or another.

In this day and time what would our life be like without the accuracy of the Atomic Clock, for its uses are unrivaled by any other time piece thus created, thru its many revisions over time it has become more accurate and steady, as years go by many improvements have come about and many will still to come for as in the beginnings to the now and present, we will always seek to improve upon our methods for recording to the benefits of all.

The Radio Controlled Clocks is one of the top clocks found today. This device would later be invented and called The Atomic Clock

For over many centuries, sailors and explorers strove to find a system that would accurately tell them their position and also to avoid dangers and accidents while on voyages. In the year 1993, with the invention of GPS, a 24-satellite network, the most viable solution to this problem was reached. Today, GPS systems are affordable at just few hundred dollars and have proved to be of great help to mankind. The GPS technology in turn, derives its efficacy, power, and accuracy from the atomic clock. This clock is precise to one billionth of a second. The atomic clock was conceived on the assumption that the magnetic resonance of atomic beams can be used to calculate time. The precision that was achieved by calculating time thus went on to enhance the functionalities of the Global Positioning System. The makers of the atomic clock probably did not fathom that their creation would have such far-reaching effects.

Atomic clock uses an “atomic resonance frequency standard” for accurate time keeping. You must however, remember that the principles on which this clock works is not based on nuclear science, as the name suggests, but on precise microwave signals. The early atomic clock was powered by MASERs – Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation; the modern-day version is driven by absorption spectroscopy of cold atoms placed in atomic fountains.

Because of their accuracy, these clocks (made of ceasium or rubidium) are used onboard a space shuttle with GPS satellites. Time is calculated to within about 50 nanoseconds and then mathematically transformed into three absolute coordinates of space and one coordinate of time. These precision GPSs are also used in computer networks, scientific laboratories, and in many forms of communication systems. They are used by airliners to navigate while ships use this system to find their way safely across oceans. They are also used by emergency medical vehicles to find their way through the maze of streets in a big city. Today this system is used to detect abnormal rumblings inside the bowel of the earth and issue earthquake alerts.

An atomic clock can be bought from online stores at attractive rates. But you must be very careful when buying such a clock; do not fall for discounted prices only. A genuine atomic clock should be accurate to a nano-fraction of a second. So when buying, check that the clock is giving such precise times.

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So what exactly does is the atomic clock? The atomic clock is a clock that uses the atomic resonance frequency standard as its own time keeping element. These time and frequency standards are the most accurate that we know. This time is used as the standard for international time services such as television broadcast or global positioning systems.

Although it may sound like it, these kind of clock does not use any type of radioactivity. It actually uses very precise microwave signals that are emitted by electrons within atoms as the energy levels change.

So what difference does the atomic clock make?

Everyday a tiny bit of time is lost. This is actually only microscopic bits of time that would make no difference in the immediate future. However, left unguarded this time would eventually add up. Although it may take quite some time there would be a great loss of time consistent standards across the globe. This may seem like small stuff, but the fact is that airports, television, radio, train scheduling and many other important aspects are controlled by the time of the this clock.

When it is your plane departing or the train you are embarking in you would want to know that the timing in the air or on the ground at train switch houses is all set to one single standard. This is the purpose of the atomic clock. Although it seems a small matter, it is one that creates a lot of the safety we have grown to trust in. Because of the atomic-clock planes and trains do not collide mid trip when precision in timing can be a life or death matter.

These are the most serious examples but there are a lot of smaller ones that are important to many people as well. The New York Stock Exchange is run on very strict time deadlines. With millions of dollars being earned and lost each and every minute on the NYSE you would not be able to convince any stockbroker there that the few seconds per year we may lose without the power of the atomic clock are unimportant.

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The idea of atomic watches sounds a little exciting, doesn’t it? Well, it may sound more exciting than it really is. The atomic watch will not blow up either. Actually, the atomic watch acts as both a radio wave receiver and a quartz watch. When the atomic watch cannot receive the time signal, it reverts to a quartz watch so that the wearer does not track of the correct time for long.

As a radio wave receiver, the wristwatch is able to keep the most accurate time according to the atomic clock of the country in which it is intended to be used. For instance, the American atomic watches will receive a low frequency radio signal from the U.S. atomic clock located in Colorado. European atomic watches will keep time according to the European country in which it was purchased. An American watch would not work in a European country because of the difference in transmitter frequency.

Within the watch case of an atomic watch, there is a small antenna. The small antenna receives the time broadcast from the atomic clock. In this way, the watch will provide the most accurate time because it will be in synch with the country’s atomic clock. The atomic clock is powered by a battery or solar energy. When the battery is changed, the watch will set itself when it begins to receive the signal again. There is no need to rewind the watch.

Atomic watches will be the most accurate watch in any country in which the watches are worn. When a wearer travels out of the country, the watch will no longer receive the radio signal. At this time, the watch will switch over to a regular quartz watch. When the traveler goes back to their home country and the watch receives the time signal again, the watch will display the time according to the atomic clock in their country. If the you travel through the different time zones of your home country, you will be able to manually adjust the time zone on the watch to coordinate with the time zone in which you are located.

Atomic watches are constantly searching for their frequency in order to stay accurate. Sometimes, interference from a strong electrical field or blockage from a large building may shield the watch so that it does not receive the radio signal. If this happens, the watch will continue running from its last positive signal so that the time will remain correct. This means that you will not lose your accurate time even if you have temporarily lost the radio time signal.

As a radio receiver, atomic watches provide great accuracy for time and even style. Atomic watches are available for men and women in a variety of colors and sizes. You can find atomic watches made of plastic, rubber, stainless steel and other metals that are suitable for any budget. The accurate time provided by atomic watches marks this watch as the right watch for any time.

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If time is crucial to you or your office, consider investing in Atomic Clocks so that everyone knows exactly what time it is and everyone has the same time. These are the most accurate time keeping pieces you can get, and more and more businesses are using atomic wall clocks to make sure that accurate time sheets and appointments are kept.

But what are Atomic Clocks and why are they so much more accurate than regular clocks? A standard clock, whether wind-up, electric or battery operated, counts time by the number of “ticks” that a resonator makes. The resonator is the device that actually keeps track of time. In most clocks the resonator is either a swinging pendulum or (in digital clocks) oscillations in the power line (which is a bit different in the U.S. and in Europe).

Atomic Clocks also use a resonator, but the resonator counts based on the resonance frequency of atoms. Resonance is the emission or absorption of microwave electromagnetic radiation by an atom. It is very regular, and no matter which atom of cesium used, the frequency of resonance is always exactly the same. This is why Atomic Clocks are so much more accurate than other clocks – the resonators in other clocks can be affected by lots of variables like temperature, moisture and atmospheric conditions. None of these affect the atoms, so the Atomic Clocks never lose or gain time.

Synchronization of Atomic Clocks

The reason all Atomic Clocks show the same time anywhere you go is because they don’t each have their own cesium atom – this would be impossible because it’s incredibly expensive and requires very precise conditions. Atomic Clocks are actually receiving the time from a shared location where one of the world’s few of the world’s Atomic Clocks operates. A low -frequency radio signal broadcasts the time from that location to all Atomic Clocks within its range. There are currently approximately 200 Atomic Clocks world-wide in sixty countries.

In the United States, most Atomic Clocks used for home and offices are synchronized to the National Institutes of Standards and Technology atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. The other official atomic clock is at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. and is the official time clock of the Department of Defense. Since both of these Atomic Clocks are within one second of each other over a million years of time, it is unlikely that time displayed on atomic wall clocks at the Pentagon will differ from the time displayed on an atomic clock in your home office!

How Do At-Home Clocks Get the Information from Master Atomic Clocks?

Global positioning satellites (GPS) in the skies above us transmit the signals from the official Atomic Clocks to individual receivers in atomic wall clocks and desk clocks all over the world. In other countries, the signal would come from whichever clock is the official atomic clock for that region, just as the one in Boulder, Colorado is the one for the United States.

These amazingly accurate Atomic Clocks are also responsible for the fact that all computers with built-in clocks are synchronized and accurate and keep time whether on or off. With such accurate time keeping and the use of GPS, you can be sure that your Atomic Clocks will let you know exactly what time it is, down to the nano-second!

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The ‘national time’, or the time that is kept in Washington, DC that many clocks are run off of, is an atomic clock. It keeps precise time and even accounts for leap years. By definition, it is a clock that uses some form of atomic resonance as a frequency standard to keep perfect time. These clocks can be very large in size given their precise workings, but the technology of them is very advanced. Smaller clocks are being developed constantly, and you can find the perfect clock for your needs at American Time & Signal.

Significance

Given that an atomic clock is very accurate, it can play a large role in anything that demands an accurate keeping of time. Many scientific experiments rely on accurate time. Not only that, but many Radio Controlled Clocks are used throughout the country and the radio station, WWVB, that gives out the correct time checks its correct time against the time from the clock that keeps the nation’s time in Washington, DC. If this radio frequency sent out the wrong time, then the entire country would be getting wrong information.

Types

The type of clock that keeps our nation’s time from Washington, DC is a cesium clock. It’s very large and can be cumbersome to work with given its size. But it’s very accurate. It is also very expensive. You can also get a rubidium atomic clock. It is a lot more cost friendly and much smaller so that it is more usable. These clocks are perfect for the short term, but lack accuracy as they get older so it’s not a great choice for long term usage. Another clock that is great for short term use is the Hydrogen atomic clock. These clocks are mostly made in Russia and are easy to use. Because many clocks are not good for long term use, they have started to develop hybrid clocks that use more than one type of atomic clock. For example, a common hybrid is a rubidium and GPS atomic clock. The rubidium makes the clock very accurate in the short term, and the GPS functioning makes it more accurate in the long term.

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When you set your watch to perhaps the speaking clock or the time on the internet, have you ever wondered who it is that sets those clocks and checks that they are accurate?

There is no single master clock used for the world’s timing but there are a constellation of clocks that are used as a basis for a universal timing system known as UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).

UTC enables all the world’s computer networks and other technology to talk to each other in perfect synchronicity which is vital in the modern world of internet trading and global communication.

But as mentioned controlling UTC is not down to one master clock, instead, a serious of highly precise Atomic Clocks based in different countries all work together to produce a timing source that is based on the time told by them all.

These UTC timekeepers include such notable organisations as the USA’s National Institute of Standards and Time (NIST) and the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) amongst others.

These organisations don’t just help ensure UTC is as accurate as possible but they also provide a source of UTC time available to the world’s computer networks and technologies.

To receive the time from these organisations, a NTP time server (Network Time Server) is required. These devices receive the broadcasts from places like NIST and NPL via long wave radio transmissions. The NTP server then distributes the timing signal across a network, adjusting individual system clocks to ensure that they are as accurate to UTC as possible.

A single dedicated NTP server can synchronize a computer network of hundreds and even thousands of machines and the accuracy of a network relying in UTC time from the broadcasts by NIST and NPL will also be highly precise.

The NIST timing signal is known as WWVB and is broadcast from Boulder Colorado in the heart of the USA whilst the UK’s NPL signal is broadcast in Cumbria in the North of England and is known as MSF – other countries have similar systems including the DSF signal broadcast out of Frankfurt, Germany.

Richard N Williams is a technical author and specialist in Atomic Clocks, telecommunications, NTP and network time synchronisation helping to develop dedicated NTP clocks. Please visit us for more information about an NTP server or other NTP time server solution.

It seems that nearly every car dashboard has a GPS receiver perched on the top. They have become incredibly popular as a navigational tool with many people relying on them solely to work their way around the road networks.

The Global Positioning System has been around for quite a few years now but was originally designed and built for US military applications but was extended for civilian use following an airline disaster.

Whilst it is incredibly useful and convenient a tool, the GPS systems is relatively simple in its operation. The navigation works using a constellation of 30 or so satellites (there are quite a few more that are orbiting but no longer operational).

The signals sent from the satellites contain three pieces of information that are received by the sat nav devices in our cars.

That information includes:

* The time the message was sent

* The orbital position of the satellite (known as the ephemeris)

* The general system health and orbits of the other GPS satellites (known as the almanac)

The way the navigational information is worked out is by using the information from four satellites. The time the signals left the each of the satellites is recorded by the sat nav receiver and the distance from each satellite is then worked out using this information. By using the information from four satellites it possible to work out exactly where the satellite receiver is, this process is known as triangulation.

However, working out exactly where you are in the world does rely on complete accuracy in the time signals that are broadcast by the satellites. As signals such as the GPS travel at the speed of light (approximately 300,000 km a second through a vacuum) even a one second inaccuracy could see positioning information out by 300 kilometres! Currently the GPS system is accurate to five metres which demonstrates just how accurate the timing information broadcast by the satellites is.

This high level of accuracy is possible because each GPS satellite contains Atomic Clocks. Atomic clocks are incredibly accurate relying on the unwavering oscillations of atoms to keep time – in fact each GPS satellite will run for over a million years before it will drift by as much as a second (compared to the average electronic watch which will drift by a second in a week or two)

Because of this high level of accuracy the Atomic Clocks on board GPS satellites can be used as a source of accurate time for the synchronization of computer networks and other devices that require synchronization.

Receiving this time signal requires the use of a NTP GPS server that will synchronize with the satellite and distribute the time to all devices on a network.

Richard N Williams is a technical author and specialist in Atomic Clocks, telecommunications, NTP and network time synchronisation helping to develop dedicated NTP clocks. Please visit us for more information about an NTP server or other NTP time server solution.

The world’s technologies have advanced dramatically over the last few decades with innovations likes the internet and satellite navigation having changed the way we live our lives.

Atomic Clocks pay a key role in these technologies; their time signals are what are used by GPS receivers to plot location and many applications and transactions across the internet if it wasn’t for highly precise synchronisation.

In fact a global timescale has been developed that is based on the time told by Atomic Clocks. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) ensures that computer networks across the globe can be synchronised to the exact same time.

Synchronising computers and networks to Atomic Clocks is relatively straight forward thanks in part to NTP (Network Time Protocol), a version of which is included in most operating systems and is also thanks to the number of public NTP servers that exist on the internet.

To synchronise a Windows PC to an atomic clock is done by simply double clocking the clock on the task bar and then configuring the Internet Time tab to a relevant NTP server. A list of public NTP servers can be found at the NTP pool website.

When configuring networks to UTC however, a public NTP server is not suitable as there are security issues about polling a time source outside the firewall. Public servers are also known as stratum 2 servers which means they receive the time from another device that gets it from an atomic clock. This indirect method means that there is often a compromise in accuracy, furthermore if the internet connection goes down or the time server site then the network will soon drift away from UTC.

A far more secure and stable method is to invest in a dedicated NTP time server. These devices receive a time signal directly from an atomic clock, either produced by a national physics lab like NIST or NPL via long wave radio or from GPS satellites.

A single dedicated NTP server will provide a stable, reliable and highly precise source of UTC and allow networks of hundreds and even thousands of devices to be synchronised to NTP.

Richard N Williams is a technical author and specialist in Atomic Clocks, telecommunications, NTP and network time synchronisation helping to develop dedicated NTP clocks. Please visit us for more information about a Galleon ntp server or other ntp time server solutions.

When we consider the most important inventions of the last 100 years, very few people will think of an atomic clock. In fact, if you ask somebody to come up with a top ten of inventions and innovations its doubtful if the atomic clock would figure at all.

Its probably not hard to imagine what people think of as the most life-changing inventions: the Internet, mobile phones, satellite navigation systems, media players etc.

However, nearly all theses technologies rely on accurate and precise time and they would not function without it. The Atomic Clocks lies at the heart of many of the modern innovations, technologies and applications associated with them.

Let’s take the Internet as an example. The Internet is, in its simplest form, a global network of computers, and this network spans time zones and countries. Now consider some of the things we use the Internet for: online auctions, Internet banking or seat reservation for example. These transactions could not be possible with precise and accurate time and synchronisation.

Imagine booking a seat on an airline at 10am and then another customer tries to book the same seat after you on a computer with a slower clock. The computer only has the time to go on so will consider the person who booked after you to have been the first customer because the clock says so! This is the reason any Internet network that requires time sensitive transactions is connected to a NTP server to receive and distribute an atomic clock time signal.

And for other technologies the atomic clock is even more crucial. Satellite navigation (GPS) is a prime example. GPS (Global Positioning System) works by triangulating atomic clock signals from satellites. Because of the high velocity of radio waves an inaccuracy of 1 second could see a sat-nav device out by 100,000 km.

Other technologies too from mobile phone networks to air traffic control systems are completely reliable on Atomic Clocks demonstrating how underrated this technology is.

Richard N Williams is a technical author and specialist in Atomic Clocks, telecommunications, NTP and network time synchronisation helping to develop dedicated NTP clocks. Please visit us for more information about an NTP server or other NTP time server solutions.