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Reviews For: HP 59309A Digital Clock

Category: Ham Shack Clocks

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Review Summary For : HP 59309A Digital Clock
Reviews: 3MSRP:
Description:
Stand-alone, or system clock
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0034.3
ERIEDXER Rating: 2015-09-10
Fun little toy Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This was made to keep time and produce time stamps with HPIB computer controlled instruments. But I simply use it as a novelty in my shop to display the time of day off of my GPSDO 10 MHz frequency reference using its external frequency reference input. It's a neat little blast from the past from HP's Santa Clara division.
F4GFT Rating: 2012-07-28
Precision instrument, but tiny display Time Owned: more than 12 months.

I got myself two of these for my retro-computing activities. The clock is extremely precise, as you would expect from an instrument of HPs heyday. Repair is easy, since it uses good old TTL chips. The clock is meant to be hooked up to a computer via HPIB, which is probably why the user interface is sparse at best, but you can use it as a stand-alone clock, which is what I do at this time in my shack. Beware though that the clock has an extremely tiny display, not unlike the LED displays used in calculators at that time, and might be difficult to read if not directly in front of you.

For amateur radio use, I rate it 3, although for all other purposes, it would be a 4 or even 5.

KD2E Rating: 2011-08-13
Incredible Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I worked for HP, but even then...this was an old product. The original cost probably kept it at unobtanium for the average Joe Ham, but now...you can find one for next to nothing. It's just a clock...with small LED readout, but it has about 5 circuit boards in there and the service manual has about 5 pages of components! Well...it is from about 1976, so that was the technology of the day. I connected the 9 volt backup battery, calibrated it with my counter (that just got back from calibration) and now...2 years later...it is still within 2 seconds of WWV....Simply AMAZING! Other than atomic clocks, I've never come across anything that stays as accurate....nothing!