[Dxspider-support] Setting System HW Clock

[Mike McCarthy, W1NR]

I run ntpd and it keeps the clock within a few milliseconds of NIST at
all times.  One of the last things that happens in the shutdown phase
(verified by the console log) is the message "Syncing hardware clock
with system time".

For Windows, I use Tardis from http://www.kaska.demon.co.uk/.  This one
also sets the HW clock as it is running.

Each of these run in the background and constantly update the system
time.  In the case of Tardis, it even reports how much clock drift you
have in the HW clock.

Mike, W1NR


-----Original Message-----
From: dxspider-support-bounces at dxcluster.org
[mailto:dxspider-support-bounces at dxcluster.org]On Behalf Of Bill Shell
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 12:41 PM
To: 'The DXSpider Support list'
Subject: [Dxspider-support] Setting System HW Clock


Hello All,

This may be a little off-topic for those with local Linux systems or
Windows systems, but...

I have had a problem with the hardware clock drifting on a few of the
remote systems I administer.  I was keeping the system time accurate by
synchronizing with Internet time, but on a system restart the time would
revert back to the hardware clock time.  I was not aware I could set the
hardware clock until I came across this article in the Linux Gazette:
http://linuxgazette.net/108/park1.html

I have now made similar routines that daily set the system time to
Internet time and then sync the hardware clock to the system time.  This
fixed the problem of having the hardware clock set the system time
incorrectly on startup.  This is particularly helpful since the three of
the DXSpider systems are about 160 miles away and a fourth system is
about 70 miles away.

I hope this information can help anyone having a similar problem.  If
anyone needs specific information, please don't hesitate to ask.

73, Bill
N6WS