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If you don't have a GPS/NTP master clock, you might want to get one...

Just heard about this on WBBM 780 news. I wonder just how bad it's gonna screw things up.
Maybe I'm gonna hafta fix up that old tube 60 hz video time-base generator and use it just to power the
synchronous clocks on a dedicated circuit.

Is it just too much to maintain standards anyone?

This was a major annoyance to punctual (former western) Germans who didn't know when they began receiving "eastern"
generated electricity with much lower frequency regulation until they started missing trains and discovered their
wall clocks were late.


How bad will it be here?
 
Mebets the Gummit and therefore the keepers of the grid are getting ready for an EMP laydown.

Is it possible do 'dark start' the grid?
 
"Officials say they want to try this to make the power supply more reliable..." More reliable? I didn't think the grid had a problem with reliability. This is gonna be a major swine fornication because some people at a lab somewhere are sitting around with nothing to do.
 
Tom Wells said:
Is it just too much to maintain standards anyone?

This was a major annoyance to punctual (former western) Germans who didn't know when they began receiving "eastern"
generated electricity with much lower frequency regulation until they started missing trains and discovered their
wall clocks were late.
Click to expand...


An interesting point in the article is that every time error mentioned was that the clocks would be fast.

From a technical standpoint, is there some reason that having the system a fraction of a Hz fast makes it any more reliable? I was always under the impression when the grid was loaded, it took slightly more energy to keep the grid at 60 Hz than it did to accept the load, run the grid slighly low in freuqency and make up for it when the grid was less loaded.

I remember working at a radio station one winter in Eastern North Carolina and because of the heavy heating load, our power line driven clocks were as much as 20 seconds slow compared to the news network. Everyone wanted to keep resetting the clock, as I tried in vain to simply post how much the clock was off, because when the heating load dropped off, the clocks would eventually be back to the correct time.
 
Just anothere sign that Harold Camping may be right.
 
SirRoxalot said:
What's next? "Digital" power?
Click to expand...
A chicken in every pot and a diode on every power line.
 
I will probably effect your home clocks more than your radio station clocks. Almost all radio stations these days use some sort of computer automation system. And most DJs go off the time on the computer, not the console.
 
I can think of one device that would be adversely affected by this...the programmable scheduler made by Broadcast Tools. I have a couple of stations using these for AM day/night pattern changes, which they are well suited for.

I'm fairly sure they use the AC power line to keep their internal clock in sync. I have noticed at one of my sites, when the mains fail and the generator runs for a while, the clock on the B-Tools scheduler is off by quite a bit.
 
Bit confused here. How will the many interconnects between power grids work now?
It's extremely important that they keep in sync or they will automatically disconnect from each other.
Only exceptions are those that are inter-connected by DC lines such as Pacific DC Intertie from Bonneville Power in WA State to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (3,100 megawatts!).
 
awsherrill said:
I can think of one device that would be adversely affected by this...the programmable scheduler made by Broadcast Tools. I have a couple of stations using these for AM day/night pattern changes, which they are well suited for.

I'm fairly sure they use the AC power line to keep their internal clock in sync. I have noticed at one of my sites, when the mains fail and the generator runs for a while, the clock on the B-Tools scheduler is off by quite a bit.
Click to expand...

Add Sine Systems to that list. The Harris Power Watch too. This is just a way to raise money for the government you know. Station X switched power 20 min late or raised power 20 min early. Here's your fine.
 
How accurate is the sine wave of UPS battery back-ups?
When the main power is on, is it getting converted through the UPS, or does the UPS bypass the battery until a power failure?
If the UPS is doing a constant conversion, and it produces an accurate 60hz, then that could be a solution.
 
Depends on the type of UPS
 
ChiefEngineer said:
Add Sine Systems to that list.
Click to expand...

Hellz yeaz. Those are tough enough to keep on time under normal circumstances.

And the console clocks on Wheatstone G3 & G4 consoles if they rely on their internal timebase.
 
Lazy J said:
How accurate is the sine wave of UPS battery back-ups?
When the main power is on, is it getting converted through the UPS, or does the UPS bypass the battery until a power failure?
If the UPS is doing a constant conversion, and it produces an accurate 60hz, then that could be a solution.
Click to expand...

Staco makes some "on-line, double conversion" UPS systems. Unfortunately, the 60 Hz is +- 5%.
 
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