[GTALUG] mysterious restarts

[Christopher Browne]

On 20 June 2016 at 10:21, Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 18, 2016 at 07:58:10PM -0400, Michael Galea wrote:
> > You know of course that the grid frequency is only approximately 60.00
> hz.
> > For example, it was 59.97 hz on Friday at around 5 PM.  I have heard
> rumors
> > that the generators spin the grid up to above 60 hz in the early morning
> > hours to compensate for the drift, but I don't know if thats a fact.  I
> > often see the grid at 60.01 hz, in the middle of the day though.
>
> Hmm, my APC SmartUPS just reports 60.0 or 60.2Hz all the time, so I
> don't think I believe it to be accurate. :)
>
> What gismo are you using to measure that?
>

Interesting if the synchronization has gotten lost.

For quite a long time, electric clocks were often synchronized based on the
60hz; apparently the Hammond Clocks were from the same Hammond more noted
for producing organs, which apparently also used power line frequency
stability to stay in pitch... <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_organ>

In the early days of quartz crystal clocks, they did *not* give as good
stability as the "beats" provided by the 60hz of the power grid.  It seems
interesting if the power grids have decided to ignore this.  While the
clock application has become much less relevant, I would imagine it easier
to maintain exact cadence today, with there being more precise clocks.
-- 
When confronted by a difficult problem, solve it by reducing it to the
question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
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