[Elecraft] OT: Trivia - WWV & so-called "atomic" clocks

[Phil Kane]

On 6/2/2011 3:42 PM, Wes Stewart wrote:

> My late wife and I were RVing through Colorado and while in Ft.
> Collins, I called up NBS (as it was called then) and asked
> whether I could tour the facility.  Whoever answered the
> telephone informed me that they didn't give tours or allow
> access, but he did say that there were some contractors doing
> some work and the gate just happened to open:-)

  In the mid-1950s I was a co-op (college) Student Trainee at the
  Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC and one of my best
  memories was a trip to the -old- site of WWV in Beltsville, MD
  before they moved to Colorado.  That was a wondrous place,
  with open-wire transmission lines inside the building feeding
  massive wire antennas out in the field.  Enough RF to keep the
  fluorescent lights lit all by themselves, and when the tone
  stopped at :45 seconds, the ticks and the recorded voice was
  patched to the public address system.  Very impressive for an
  18-year-old kid from the big city who couldn't afford a ham rig
  of his own.

  Factoid - WWV is the oldest radio station in the US still in
  continuous operation (since May 1920).  Read all about it at:

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWV_(radio_station)

--  73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
    Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402