Mills@udel.edu (12/08/90)
Folks, For the intrepid trivia collectors I have put up the file dcf77.txt in the pub/ntp directory on louie.udel.edu. This gem describes the transmission format and other useful details of the German time/frequency standard station DCF77, located near Frankfurt, and was provided in English from the German by Peter Lamb. You will note this station has two delightful features, one the inclusion of year/leap-warning information and the other a pseudorandom phase dither intended to increase accuracy. The pseudoramdom thing I love, but it shouldn't stop there. I submit the entire timecode should be remodulated on the pseudorandom code, the generator polynomial of which is not stated in the document. This technique essentially improves the millisecond accuracy of the amplitude- modulated timecode to microsecond accuracy for the phase code. Spectracom, TrueTime - are you listening. Call your congressman. If I can find it in my junquebox, I will put up Jon Crowcroft's description of the MSF scheme. Then, we get to hear from Bob Cunningham what the Japanese GOES clone does. (Kanji timecodes?) The Aussies are invited to sniff their chronons, too. We got a MISSION! Dave