Mini Mail #1 - Heathkit GC-1000 Most Accurate Clock

A new take on the classic FranLab Viewer Mail ~ Mini Mail! Not your usual 90 minute feature length mail but a bite sized version. Trying it on for size. Do you like it? If so, then I'll do more! If you want to send something in just message me and let me know what you want to submit for a future Mini Mail. Enjoy!
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[@undefinedname1398]

I have one of those clocks. I couldn't get enough of Heathkit kits, love anything that was made by Heathkit. Assembled many H89 and H120 computers. I miss those days.

[@swinde]

I built one of those clocks back in about 1985. At the time it cost 249.95 and the RS-232 interface was about $20. In those days, it was the only consumer clock that synced to the WWV time signals from Colorado. It would pick up 5, 10, and 15MHz stations that provided universal time. It also lets you listen to the broadcast. The voltage regulator was one of the weak points in this device. /It ran too hot and would even un-solder the pins and burn the PC board. There is a third party upgrade kit for this regulator section. The way it worked is that it had to receive two complete one minute cycles of date from WWV to set the clock to run. There was no way to easily set the clock manually, so if you could not get a good signal the clock would not operate. I had to use the external antenna jack and I made a quarter wave antenna.

[@trs80model14]

250 bucks was a lot of money in the early-mid-1980's!

[@MrPeetersmark]

I would like to see that switching regulator switched out with a good old linear regulator. Then make a video about the trouble shooting and repair of it. Would make great content whether it works or not.

[@DandyDon1]

@Steve Terry The original regulator ran very hot. This is why the regulator circuit was modified. Apparently this person was able to make it work with this mod. www.nixie.dk/~jthomas/gc1000.html

[@DandyDon1]

If you look at the images closely you will see the heat sink has been removed, and a spacer used in it's place for the height.

[@trs80model14]

That's a common mod to the Heathkit clocks: Like @DandyDon1 said, they run very hot with the original regulator. You can find other vids where people have changed out these regulators/power resistor for a modern switching regulator.

[@VICTORYOVERNEPTUNE]

This is the third kit I ever built. The second clock, the first clock was an alarm clock. Ours had an external power supply, nearly the size of the clock. I loved Heathkit.

[@alextirrellRI]

This is the perfect length for a video, and never be afraid to break a project up into multiple videos! Just about to watch part 2!

[@PastorDATM]

Fran, that HF receiver was not designed for a switching power supply! The noise is swamping the receiver. Try to find a linear regulator that will work. 73, Dave

[@jhbonarius]

I think she knows...

[@jhbonarius]

@@15743_Hertz that's called "paranoia"

[@biggiejohn3360]

seems it was a common mod, I found a website that recommends it. www.nixie.dk/~jthomas/gc1000.html

[@PastorDATM]

Richard Wielgosz, no... Basically it is just fundamental overload. That switcher is not shielded and the HF receiver design never “anticipated” a switcher on the same real estate much less those cell towers in the same neighborhood. It is no wonder why that receiver is losing its ability to hear. LOL 😂

[@GiddeonFox]

@@jhbonarius Or "mansplaining"

[@GordieGii]

Fran, there is one way to set the time: Plug it in at midnight.

[@pleasecho2]

Thats not true. All it has to do is synch. I always hoped someone could come up with a way to add time set buttons so when WWV shuts down we can still use these

[@pleasecho2]

@@jkobain How would you do that?

[@pleasecho2]

@@jkobain You tell me

[@swinde]

Actually there was a way to set it fairly close using the test mode and the silver button on top of the regulator. It was very tricky and difficult.

[@gordbaker896]

I have to do that with my Electric Stove.

[@afriedli]

Love the pre-GPS pre-Internet clock. You used to be able to buy an isa board for your computer with an in-built receiver and external antennae to keep your RTC referenced to the IAT (International's Atomic Time) standard. 40 years ago there was no other reliable way of doing it. I used to work in aviation, which couldn't operate without coordinates, including time coordinates. For decades this was provided by radio.

[@phivestarz]

For your YT analytics tracking: this is the first time in 2yrs I've had a recommended video of yours on my home screen. Algo likes this one. I do too!

[@Roxas0987654321]

Less than a minute in and I must object, I LOVE the long videos and I would happily pay money to watch a 24 hour stream of Fran Blanche fiddling with technology.

[@JIMO415]

Fran, in switching back to a 7805 refer to the manual for a required dropper resistor, that has from what I see, may have been removed from the board and jumped with the red wire. I always like the clock vids. Good luck and enjoy!

[@lee4hmz]

I remember seeing this in the 1990 (!) Heath catalog and thinking it was the coolest thing, so I'd love to see it working properly!

[@pspicerwensley]

Always a good idea to reseat and resolder major components. Joints dry out and a quick touch up can really help.

[@roberthindle5146]

Fab video. What an interesting piece of kit (thanks Eugene!). I really hope there'll be a restoration vid with the 5V ISR swapped for a linear reg and a successful attempt to sync it! You could even use it to send the real time over uart to the little arduino and get that to drive the time to a fancy-schmancy display! Loved the outro too!

[@BigDaddy_MRI]

Another video of the regulator replacement and a good tune up of the receiver would be awesome!! Nice to see the clock running correctly. Take care.

[@edgeofeternity101]

I assembled a Heathkit alarm clock kit on New Years eve 89-90 with a bottle of scotch. I am still using today, great kit.

[@gorillaau]

Funny, I tend to use a soldering iron to assemble a kit. :-)

[@edgeofeternity101]

@@gorillaau Things were slow at work right before Christmas, I waited to buy presents until the week before, the end of the week we got laid off, on new years eve, I really needed a drink. I did have a couple of Radio Shack irons to keep me warm.

[@goodcitizen]

Totally remember the GC-1000 from the catalog. Always wanted one. Miss Heathkit....used to wear out the pages thumbing through the catalogs.... we were the first ones on the block to have a color tv. The old man built it from a heathkit in 68-69 ....for a few months we didn’t have dinner at the dinner table because that’s where the tv was being built. Would come home from school and smell the solder.

[@BlackWolf42-]

Yeah! I remember the smell of when dad would solder something when coming home. He didn't realize the scent as he was used to it. It lingered - I'd ask what he had repaired and was sad when he wouldn't open the device back up to show me. That's how I learned the art of screwdriver. Your post brought back memories.

[@gregorythomas333]

If a lab is NOT cluttered it ain't being used properly :) Nothing wrong with longer videos...just a couple days ago I watched Big Clive's 1.5 hour video and was perfectly fine with it!

[@pmgodfrey]

I've had one for years. Recently had to recap it and retune the radio board. Where I am, 5 and 10 MHz are the best frequencies. You can modernize the clock and get a GPS interface for $90 or so if they ever have them in stock.

[@dentakuweb]

That was great. Fun, interesting and educational. I know some people like rants about "what's wrong with the world" but that gets depressing after a while.

[@1SqueakyWheel]

Oh, you wanna know what's wrong with the world? I'll tell ya what's wrong with the world!

[@nikreichel2232]

I made it until the end! Thx Fran! :D Yes, short videos meet our need for crisp infotainment ;)

[@bobweiss8682]

The switching regulator in the PSU has to go. Put in a straight analog regulator, and it should significantly improve the noise floor. Those modern replacement units are fine where efficiency is needed, but NOT right next to the frond end of an HF receiver! The original 78(05?) regulator ran quite warm even on that beefy heatsink. I had one of those units for years, and am also on the US east coast. Using the internal antenna, reception was pretty poor most of the time. Likes an outdoor longwire antenna much better. If you can't hear WWV audio above the noise, the clock will never set. The unit will just sit there with a blanked display until it decodes a couple consecutive data frames from WWV. then it will display the time. One of the Green LEDs should blink with the audio "ticks" of the WWV audio.

[@pleasecho2]

I too am in the NE and the only way I can get it to synch on a regular basis is with a 20 ft wire spooled around the ceiling and at 10mhz only

[@generatorjohn4537]

Great video Fran. I built a Heathkit bench VTVM (vacuum tube voltmeter) in the mid 1970's. Quality product. I liked your initial assessment, evaluation of the clock. Thanks

[@jakebrodskype]

A couple of notes about the GC-1000: First, it uses an envelope detector connected to a series of 567 tone decoder chips. This is how it reads the 100 Hz subcarrier from WWV, as well as the 1 kHz ticks. It's not a particularly reliable method because selective fading can really mess things up. The clock needs to correctly read three successive minutes of properly decoded signal, spaced by one minute apart before it sets itself. There are no checksums, so the clock has no other way of knowing that the time was properly received. Sometimes selective fading would kill one of those 1 baud signals in exactly the same way three times in a row. This would cause the clock to jump to an incorrect time reading. It could be off by as much as hours, or tens of minutes. Finally, the receiver was never all that great. You probably should not use the whip antenna that came with the unit. Instead use one or more outdoor loop antennas tuned to 5, 10, or 15 MHz. You need to do that to get away from the noise of so many switching supplies, variable frequency drives in appliances, and so forth. Yes, we once used those things for a SCADA system back in the late 1980s. We had to put a sanity check in our software to not react if the time suddenly jumped.

[@clintonturner9846]

You wouldn't be hearing noise and grunge from the cell site itself, but rather the many, many devices in your building with switch-mode power supplies, some of that energy being conducted on overhead power lines and internal building wiring. If you have florescent light fixtures - especially those with electronic ballasts - that will be one of the causes of the din - but that's easy to check out (turn them off!) - but there are likely dozens of "wall warts" around the place that are emitting lots of noise and it would required turning off all of the circuit breakers - then turning on one at a time - to find the culprits. "Pure sine wave" - and some normal non-sine UPSs tend to be a strong noise source whether they are on back-up or not and will still make noise when the power is off.

[@lostindesolation2810]

Hope to see a followup once a proper regulator has been installed. And yeah I prefer this shorter format!

[@peterw2845]

fun video , long or short , this kinda thing from you is my cup of tea , love the exploring and problem solving , totally forgot about the radio controlled clocks , thanks fran 👍

[@conwaytwt]

I believe the "data" signal on WWV is a 100 Hz pulse. That's why the "data" light kept coming on when the buzz was loudest. If you pull up WWV on a shortwave radio, you can easily hear the long and short data pulses amongst the one-second clicks. They're slow enough you could probably transcribe and decode it manually. I haven't looked in years, but the exact format of the data signal from WWV was shown on a page of the ARRL Handbook. That page in the handbook always looked like a duplication of a US government publication. SO it's likely available directly from some government office.

[@paulodagraca3469]

First mini-mail, love it already 😄

[@atschirner]

Fran, I built one of these in the '80s. Worked great in the midwest. Please talk more about the RS232 output function in the next installment. Thanks!

[@elvinhaak]

I like these Mini's. Keep them coming please.

[@Ramsis-SNES]

Heathkit clocks are the best!

[@qrelectronicrepair1802]

At first I was like pass but then i seen your box cutter. A gal with a wave is good people in my book.

[@biggiejohn3360]

I have a more modern WWV clock , it will only receive a signal at night, after sunset, otherwise there is just too much background noise. As long as it gets a signal once a day, it seems to stay very accurate

[@swinde]

My understanding is that WWV made some changes to the system that impacted this clock's ability to receive the codes to set the time. However they did something that made it still work. I purchased mine in 1985 and lived in Memphis, TN at the time. The local antenna was not adequate to receive a strong signal at my location. A friend of mine constructed a crude quarter wave antenna that could be mounted indoors and it worked. It still sometimes took a while to lock on, I found it was best to lock out the weak channels and use just one to get a lock. At that location the 10 MHz worked the best. In 1990 I moved to Jupiter, FL which is close to West Palm Beach on the south east coast of the state. Even though it was farther from the station in Colorado, it worked very well there with only the local telescoping antenna. A year later I moved up to Hobe Sound, FL and it was difficult to get a good signal there. Hobe Sound is only 15 miles north of Jupiter but something made the reception harder. I went back to the quarter wave external antenna and it worked reasonably well until about two years ago. It might be an issue with my antenna, but it hasn't locked on in a while.

[@w-2385]

I have one of these GC-1000 clocks, I LOVE IT. A couple of years ago someone upgraded the power supply for me. The clock has now failed. Sadly, NO ONE knows how to fix them anymore.

[@csakmiert6489]

Thank you!

[@CooKiesHouseCannabisCo]

Frannnn... I name dropped you at the largest TG convention in the united states while giving a speech on trans ppl finding their own path in life and the struggles we face apart and together; especially in small business. I used you as an example of the importance in finding your passion that compliments your interests and then going all in on it. ^ ~ ^ hope you gain a few more subscribers babes.

[@bme7491]

Back in the 80s a friend of mine had one of those Heathkit Clocks, and I programmed his Atari 1040ST computer to get the time via the RS232 interface and set the RTC in the Atari. Fun little project.

[@_John_Sean_Walker]

When you switch it on, you have to wait an hour or two for it to find the signal from the radio station you picked with the dip switch.

[@bborkzilla]

I remember a friend of my Dad's building one of those - it hardly ever locked onto WWV, too much noise from his Altair 8800!

[@kenlogsdon7095]

Replace the telescopic whip with a BNC connector and run a coax out to a dipole well away from the house. You'll be amazed at the improvement.

[@johnt7502]

Have to take my little WWV clock out in the back yard for a good lock. Lol.

[@m.k.8158]

@@kenlogsdon7095 I'm pretty sure that the clock already has an external antenna connection on the back.

[@SX939]

I own a GC-1000 clock. It is supposed to come up with the display BLANK, only the decimal point should light! The clock will display time within 3 to 20 minutes as it locks to the WWV signal. Mine works perfectly even 1400 miles away from WWV Boulder Colorado using an external inverted V antenna. 73 - KV4WM - A US Navy Nuclear Submarine Veteran and FCC Licensed Radio Operator. BTW - RTFM !!! it's all in there!

[@peterhancox3597]

love to see that working again too

[@reasonablebeing5392]

Great to see you back digging into electronics.

[@gwesco]

I still have mine as well as all the manuals. You can plug a serial terminal into the output and it will display the time in a terminal. Fun project but much easier to do now with a Raspberry pi zero W. I have built several clocks using the pi and both the Russian 1N-14 Nixie's and the old Burroughs B-7971 4 inch alphanumeric tubes. Self setting due to the use of the ntp servers.

[@mrnmrn1]

Fran, that switching regulator has been installed for a reason. That heat sink used to be black anodised, now it's light gray. The board under it is black! That heatsink was blazing hot with the 7805! And it was also cooking the filter capacitors behind it. So I think the best option would be to replace the transformer to a lower voltage one, and use a pin compatible low drop linear regulator instead of a 7805. This way you can get rid of both the interference, and the excessive heat. Also, I suggest to rise that board on the top of the heatsink with two spacers, it's covering the fins. And if the layout allows it, drill holes on the PCB under the heatsink, to help the airflow getting among the fins.

[@wb8cxo]

mmmm1 is right. Heaths original design used a 7805 which ran HOT... The transformer ran HOT too! Caps dried out, board gets scorched. Yada, yada, yada. Read the included printed insert that was stapled together. It describes mods for replacing the regulator and caps. I did this mod to my clock and it did the trick. You also might wanna check the caps in the tone decoders when you do the calibration. The Mostek cpus are the exact same part... grounding one pin on the chip causes it to run the code to send the time out to the serial port.... Each frequency will receive WWV at different times of the day depending on atmospheric propagation. The whip antenna won’t cut it for reception on the east coast. My clock ran best with a good outside antenna in Ohio. Antennas and signal reception is another hobby that is at the mercy of local Radio Frequency Interference or RFI. WWV may go off the air to save the government money so get you’re GC-1000 working while there is still a time signal to receive. This is one of Heaths cool (even though it ran HOT) kits cherished by many! I haven’t checked for KZbin vids about it but I bet they’re there. Also Google will produce lotsa information about the clock since it’s not politically conservative. Have fun!

[@landonmiller6943]

There was talk of discontinuing the WWV signals due to budget cuts. If that happens then the GC-1000 becomes a boat anchor unless it can lock onto the Canadian time signal frequencies.

[@vincei4252]

We are absolutely surrounded by switching power supplies. I live out in the country and all my AM radios pick up all sorts of switching crap from everything in the house - even the kitchen lights. I also have a cell tower line of site abut 1/2 a mile from me which spews crap into everything around as well. We live in a very noisy world now.

[@jhonwask]

I like your Fran Lab song at the end.

[@CrimFerret]

The person that assembled that took their time and did a great job. All those discreet components just scream that this thing will last forever (maybe with replacement of the electrolytic caps). You seemed to indicate that that switching power supply module wasn't the one the kit came with. I'd either try to duplicate the original if possible or just find a compatible solid state one. Once you get it operational otherwise, try getting the time signal at night. I had a watch that synced to that and it could only get a signal at night if it were placed on a window sill facing west. I guess this was a precursor to using a GPS receiver to sync PC's to (before everyone just started doing it over the internet.

[@ncc74656m]

I love your little squeal of joy when you opened the clock! :D

[@cdsmith]

I agree the switcher regulator must go. Philly might be a bit far from the transmitters in Colorado to pick up the signal without additional effort. Maybe make a higher gain directional antenna you can point toward CO? Then maybe you'd only be picking up noise from the direction of CO? And possibly add shielding in the case? I guess it depends on how much effort you wish to expend to make it work...

[@LandBoardsLLC]

The 13.8 VDC makes perfect sense since IIRC it also runs off car batteries. So unless you sacrifice that feature you have to figure out how to deal with that.

[@sziltner]

I miss Heathkits! Started with a VTVM and graduated to a color TV. I guess that really dates me! Yup, 79 years old. 🙄

[@Phantomthecat]

Love the shorter format Fran, it’s not as if I didn’t like the longer ones, but generally don’t have the time to watch an hour plus video very often. 👍

[@Dstromb232]

Lab looks nice.

[@tomheckhaus7617]

On the East coast your best bet is between 1 & 3 A.M. for WWV. In NY, Long Island and the East Coast of N.C. 10mhz has the best reception.

[@philippirie]

hello Fran. Love your channel even the "Frants". Keep up the great work and thank you

[@electronixTech]

This reminds me of the Heathkit digital clock I built for my highschool electronics class project in 1985. That's why I figured it would be around the same vintage.

[@RealUnimportant]

Great stuff! Shame the sender of the clock didn't include any personal note, but at least you got the important stuff! I look forward to seeing it restored to functionality soon.

[@Ellenslife851]

Love the song at end very funky

[@jhonwask]

That's a mighty antenna.

[@jtwhite2084]

Fran - FYI that switch on the left side of the case turns off the displays which reduces the current appreciably. As others have suggested the substitution of a switch mode regulator is likely swamping the receivers so it may never sync properly. Also, I've had one of these for years and until I switched to an external antenna (a simple dipole tuned to 10 MHz hung in my attic) it hardly ever synced. Even with the external antenna, mine may take a day or two to sync but I live nearly 1100 miles from WWV.

[@hbmarcott]

The reason the power supply was modified was the original power supply cooked really hot. If you search on line there is a modified power supply design that still is a linear power supply. I'm located in Wyoming about 300 miles from WWV But even being that close I have a hard time receiving it during the night. I have mine configured to just receive 5 and 10 MHZ. It works much better with an outside antenna. I use my ham Antenna and WWV slams in to the clock. I wish mine was in as good shape that the one you received. I purchased it on ebay and was a little rougher looking but after all its over 40 years old. I hope you enjoy yours.

[@hbmarcott]

My clock came already modified, so I’m not sure exactly what was done. It does run much cooler after the mod. I had another clock that I had to send back. That radio ran very hot. If you turn off the display it runs much cooler.

[@psycholocke4090]

hey Fran. there is one way to get the correct time. switch it on at 12:00:00 and let it run 😉

[@reginaldlawrence412]

Great video Fran.

[@randycarter2001]

I'm in Seattle WA. My atomic clocks won't synchronize during the day. You have to wait until night preferably around 2AM. I also have trouble dependent on the weather.

[@annroses11]

The 7800 series voltage regulators have a habit of oscillating if the input decoupling cap goes bad, or the ESR increases over time, as will happen with an aluminum electrolytic cap. At minimum, a 0.1uF ceramic cap with low ESR should be used directly at the regulator's input terminal. From your diagram, the input terminal of the 7805 has a low value series resistor resistance to the regulator input terminal which would appear as additional ESR of the caps used in the input circuit. The 7805 output voltage may oscillate at the output at a frequency of about 5MHz with a signal level of about 1Vp-p modulating the top of the DC component. It's important to look at the regulator output with a scope to find out whether or not the device is oscillating. A digital multimeter will simply show the output voltage to be about 4.5VDC for a 7805.

[@Justplast]

good on you Fran good job

[@justinvzu01]

Only just found your channel. How are you not married to Dave? Match made in heaven!

[@shoofle]

I looove your credits music... So chill!

[@darkmatter7427]

Lovely!

[@VulcanOnWheels]

I do have a watch that uses a time station, or whatever it's called, so I believe it should still work as far as that is concerned.

[@seanmangan2769]

I love the closing music!!

[@xConundrumx]

I have the GC-1092A version lying about somewhere but some of the panaplex displays are utterly dim, and those cost a pretty penny, or you have to go with NOS which can be a bit hit and miss sometimes depending on the vendor.

[@skullscandle]

Switching power regulators usually require a minimum current to operate. The 50 mA on start might be simply to low to get the simple switcher running.

[@jerrywatson1958]

Fran this was great. I remember those days, when we built our own electronics, radios, and early pcs, for fun. What happened to our country, we had a generation all set for the future. Young people today don't realize how building it yourself invigorates the mind. I know not all fall into that bracket but enough do that it is hurting our nation's innovative competitive advantage. Have you seen anything of interest coming out of the "maker community"? Thanks for all your hard work. I got my 3rd Class FCC license when I was 15. I loved building FM transmitters and receivers. Ham was too expensive for me back then with all my other hobbies, so I stuck with CB Radio for unlicensed use and low power FM.

[@Madness832]

Love how it arrived in an L.L.Bean box. Which begs the question: If you had a choice, would you take duck boots or that lovely old clock?

[@mrbigfellanz]

That coaster... yep I'd like that.

[@vwestlife]

Reception of WWV is best at night, especially on 5 or 10 MHz.

[@daveb5041]

*WWV didn't get its budget cut!?!?! Glad its still transmitting. I live in MD and 5Mhz always came through not so much on 10 or 15MHz* Assuming the budget didn't get cut.

[@Billblom]

Wow.. back up over 100k!!! Nice. Meanwhile, if they decide to re-design, they could put in a window connected gps receiver to determine location, altitude and thus prop delay..

[@CannaCJ]

Kits are so cool! I'm waiting on a little 3.5-15MHz QRP regenerative receiver kit from a ham club out near the southwestern quadripoint here in the US. Can't wait to throw out a wire and start pulling in signals.

[@gorillaau]

Yes, there is something to be said for building something yourself. You generally have a good idea how to fix it when it goes wrong but cost is rarely a good reason for building a kit as main consideration.

[@LutzSchafer]

Interesting, I thought the time signal is sent via very long wave (around 60 kHz) from Fort Collins. This gives the enormous coverage also during day times. Didn't know that there are shortwave transmitters too.

[@CannaCJ]

@@LutzSchafer WWV sends those NIST signals out as low as 2.5 MHz, yeah. Same antenna farm they use for the long wave out in Fort Collins.

[@CARLiCON]

It should still display a time even if it doesn't have a signal. If someone home-assembled it, I bet there's a loose connector, short, or open trace somewhere

[@Screamingtut]

Also Fran, clean the two Micro Processers the pins had corrosion on them

[@rogerlaurel2363]

If you could set the time manually, it would not be 'accurate". Worked for Heathkit shop for 10 years! Loved it. Too bad the business model did not survive. Great products! A lot of fun! Products from DC to daylight! I miss it!

[@SteveMallison]

I agree with your other commentators on this. Switch mode PSUs are all fine and dandy but are really bad news around HF receivers. Speaking from experience.

[@RippingJack76]

My Clock building days are behind me. But I wish Heathkit still existed.....

[@nemoinmt]

Time machine back to the 70's. We built the wind speed and direction kit out at the farm during the winter and other kits. Sooo cool, kept us kids busy. They had so many cool kits. Always wanted to build a stereo receiver. I see they have a website, hope they are going to stage a comeback. Will give me something to do in retirement.

[@johnpossum556]

With that horrible reception it is a good thing that clock is portable. Maybe if you haul it to Colorado and place it right next to the atomic transmitter you will get a good signal.

[@backwoodsmodified]

Some of us still like the longer videos.

[@nikreichel2232]

I wish I had the time... :P

[@Spawn-td8bf]

Agreed. :)

[@lesliedeana5142]

Just the right length!

[@gwesco]

PS, The Heathkit clock needs to receive the time signal continuously for about 10 minutes for it to sync. I live in a concrete block house which makes a great Faraday sheild!

[@andyhill242]

I like this new mini format Fran,

[@johnnyfivejmc]

I could have watched an hour of your video, no problem.

[@DOCTOR_SONG]

Send me back to 1983 any day

[@PeterCCamilleri]

Many shortwave frequencies are only usable at night. I guess that the linear 5 volt regulator was replaced with a switcher because the linear got too hot.

[@dipi71]

Love the theme song, Fran! Cheers!

[@rodgerkitchens7183]

Fran Once you get the regulator replaced and get a good signal, you will need a little patience. The time signal is sent at a blistering rate of 1 baud. It takes a full minute to send the hours, minutes, date and UTC corrections. They also have a bit for daylight savings time. You can get more information at www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/radio-stations/wwv/wwv-and-wwvh-digital-time-code-and-broadcast Also of interest, the frequencies they broadcast are NIST tracable frequency standards. The tones broadcasted are also frequency standards. You can use these to calibrate your signal generators. This book gives instructions on how to do this. nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nbsspecialpublication559.pdf

[@noakeswalker]

Yeah, the rf noise of the 21st C is a problem for this WWV receiver Fran. It isn't in a screened case either, to make matters worse ! As you say, back in the '80s, it stood a chance. Good luck though, like to see it working. (you should hear the 1 pip/sec tones of WWV from the speaker - you know that - but there must be some kind of simple processor in there to decode the 1 bit/sec data from WWV also. Random YT vid of WWV sound here kzbin.info/www/bejne/baW5eWmKpr16Ztmme )

[@josephcote6120]

At least you have the possibility of having it work. Somehow here on the west coast all the shortwave bands are really weak.