[time-nuts] Is it Hz or MHz ?

2014-06-02 Thread Kit Scally
Team Nutters,
 

GPSDO's are often specified for stability as so many parts per x.  Using a
Symmetricom 8040C as an example, this has a quoted accuracy of typically
5E^-11 at shipment.  Ageing (monthly and yearly) and ADEV stability rates
for 1, 10  100 seconds are also given. This particular device as 1, 5 and
10 MHz outputs.

The question - is this accuracy with respect to 1Hz - or 10MHz ?  If the
latter, then the accuracy figures quoted needs to be modified by 10^6 (Hz to
MHz) to get a feel for the actual frequency changes at 10MHz.

Glossies of many GPSDO manufacturers seem deathly silent on this point, so
clearly, something is assumed.  I have seen an oscillator comparison chart
by Meinberg (a German company) that in their comparison chart, the accuracy
references need scaling to relate to 1Hz.
 
Appreciate some advice and/or direction on this before madness overtakes me
!
 
 
Kit 
Canberra
Australia

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Re: [time-nuts] Is it Hz or MHz ?

2014-06-02 Thread Poul-Henning Kamp
In message 595D85DC050442D88D7AC80A4476610B@dd09, Kit Scally writes:

The question - is this accuracy with respect to 1Hz - or 10MHz ?

Both, because it's a relative measure:

Your 1Hz will be between 0.999 and 1.001 Hz

Your 10MHz will be 999. and 1000.0001 Hz.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
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Re: [time-nuts] Is it Hz or MHz ?

2014-06-02 Thread wb6bnq

Hi Kit,

The value of 5E^-11 refers to the resolution that the precision can be 
relied upon after taking into account all the factors that influence 
it.  It means that there is an error that can be as much as +/-5 parts 
per e^-11.


At 10 MHz that is +/- 0.0005 Hertz error.  At 5 MHz that is +/-0.00025 
Hertz error.  At 1 MHz it is +/-0.5 Hertz error.  And, finally, at 1 
Hertz it is +/-0.005 Hertz error.


BillWB6BNQ


Kit Scally wrote:


Team Nutters,


GPSDO's are often specified for stability as so many parts per x.  Using a
Symmetricom 8040C as an example, this has a quoted accuracy of typically
5E^-11 at shipment.  Ageing (monthly and yearly) and ADEV stability rates
for 1, 10  100 seconds are also given. This particular device as 1, 5 and
10 MHz outputs.

The question - is this accuracy with respect to 1Hz - or 10MHz ?  If the
latter, then the accuracy figures quoted needs to be modified by 10^6 (Hz to
MHz) to get a feel for the actual frequency changes at 10MHz.

Glossies of many GPSDO manufacturers seem deathly silent on this point, so
clearly, something is assumed.  I have seen an oscillator comparison chart
by Meinberg (a German company) that in their comparison chart, the accuracy
references need scaling to relate to 1Hz.

Appreciate some advice and/or direction on this before madness overtakes me
!


Kit 
Canberra

Australia

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Re: [time-nuts] Is it Hz or MHz ?

2014-06-02 Thread Tom Van Baak
 The value of 5E^-11 refers to the resolution that the precision can be 
 relied upon after taking into account all the factors that influence 
 it.  It means that there is an error that can be as much as +/-5 parts 
 per e^-11.

No, it can be way more. A 5e-11 spec value is likely just RMS, or 1-sigma. 
Actual measurements will show significantly larger 2-sigma, 3-sigma, etc. value.

Your as much as wording sounds more like a 6-sigma, or peak-to-peak spec.

One must be very careful to match the measurement used to make the spec with 
how the device is intended to be used. For example, Magnus will likely tell us 
about MTIE, which is a perfect-storm, worst-case time error spec. It's very 
different from rough 1-sigma specs we usually talk about.

/tvb


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[time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Tom Van Baak
1) When I fly I often use my iPhone while on the ground, before take-off or 
after landing.

2) I sometimes carry a GPS receiver. When permitted (varies by airline), it's 
fun to log NMEA data for a flight and later plot the flight path and duration 
with UTC accuracy.

3) On occasion I also bring a logging Geiger counter. It's amazing how much 
background radiation there is up at flight altitude compared to down at ground 
level. You can go from 10 or 20 CPM (counts per minute) at home to, say, 500! 
CPM at 40k feet. Those of you who live in mile-high Colorado enjoy higher 
background levels. I know, because my Geiger counter was wonderfully close to 
60 CPM (= 1 CPS) in a hotel near NIST. Yes, I have the 1PPS ADEV plot for this 
and, yes, background radiation makes the world's worst atomic clock.
 
Anyway, over the years I've collected some nice GPS latitude/longitude/altitude 
data sets as well as background radiation as a function of altitude. Just to be 
clear, I do turn off these devices according to airline regulations.

Now I have never had a problem with reception in the terminal, walkway, or even 
while seated inside a plane. I figured the aluminum frame of the plane was thin 
enough that photons at cell, GPS, and gamma frequencies easily pass through the 
outer shell or the windows.

But last week I flew the new composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner and noticed 
something quite different. From the second I entered the plane, I lost both 
cell and GPS reception. It didn't matter how close I was to a window or not. I 
know the word composite sounds inert, but carbon fiber must be somewhat 
conductive, yes? And there must be serious lightning suppression layers too, 
maybe? Furthermore, the B787 windows are exotic; like giant oval LCD screens 
which electronically dim from near transparent to very opaque. Does all this 
make the new 787 a record-holding RF-tight flying Faraday cage?

Is this the first airplane in history where a time-nut can't receive GPS? At 
least gamma rays make it though, so I got RAD data. But no GPS data. Not a 
single SV fix the entire time I was inside the plane.

Has anyone else noticed this? Or know about this? Please respond only if you 
have real information. I can speculate as well as anyone; so it's solid 
technical, RF, EMF, or composite carbon fiber engineering info I'm looking for.

Thanks,
/tvb

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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread John Marvin
Did they make any announcements regarding this? Most people aren't going 
to care about GPS, but many people are used to using their cell phones 
while waiting for the door to close  and/or as soon as the wheels touch 
the ground when landing. If this doesn't work in a 787 I would think 
that they would make a PA announcement to that effect, rather than 
having to continuously answer questions regarding the problem.


Regards,

John

On 6/2/2014 2:55 AM, Tom Van Baak wrote:

But last week I flew the new composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner and noticed something quite 
different. From the second I entered the plane, I lost both cell and GPS reception. It 
didn't matter how close I was to a window or not. I know the word composite 
sounds inert, but carbon fiber must be somewhat conductive, yes? And there must be 
serious lightning suppression layers too, maybe? Furthermore, the B787 windows are 
exotic; like giant oval LCD screens which electronically dim from near transparent to 
very opaque. Does all this make the new 787 a record-holding RF-tight flying Faraday cage?

Is this the first airplane in history where a time-nut can't receive GPS? At 
least gamma rays make it though, so I got RAD data. But no GPS data. Not a 
single SV fix the entire time I was inside the plane.

Has anyone else noticed this? Or know about this? Please respond only if you 
have real information. I can speculate as well as anyone; so it's solid 
technical, RF, EMF, or composite carbon fiber engineering info I'm looking for.

Thanks,
/tvb

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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Poul-Henning Kamp
In message BB41DBA7E336413BB9D643DF4D4F613D@pc52, Tom Van Baak writes:

I know, because my Geiger counter was wonderfully close to 60 CPM
(= 1 CPS) in a hotel near NIST. Yes, I have the 1PPS ADEV plot for
this and, yes, background radiation makes the world's worst atomic
clock.

Only for short tau.  It should be pretty good at tau  1e3 years or so ?

But last week I flew the new composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner and
noticed something quite different. From the second I entered the
plane, I lost both cell and GPS reception.

This is by design, so the plane can contain its own in-flight
wireless services.

WLAN in planes is no problem, there is a subset of channels which are
almost globally safe to use.

However, the next big cash-cow is supposed to be inflight mobile
phone + data, and bringing a Mobile Femtocell into any country
you might happen to fly over is a regulatory violation and paperwork
nightmare.

Originally the GSM spec had a sort of RFC1918 facility, were one
specific frequency would be local space, for exactly this kind of
application on marine vehicles.  Your phone would never automatically
roam to such a net, you'd have to explicitly select that a 'local space'
base-station, and you'd be stuck to it, until you manually released it.

However, given governments gold-hunt in spectrum allocations, that feature
died in the crib, and has not subsequently been revived.

Therefore airlines and cruise boats have to use regulated frequencies
if they want to offer cell-service.

Cruise-boats use a loophole in the international maritime treaties,
even when in harbour, they're under their national flag, and since
most of them are Bahamas or similar, getting a mobile license and
frequency allocation is cheap.  (Usually they crank up the power
when in harbour and milk any unsuspecting land-locked tourists with
exorbitant roaming-charges.)

Planes are not similarly nationalized and apart from the aeronautical
spectrum, they cannot emit any radiation for which they are not
licensed by the country they overfly.

And so they've started to build the planes as farady-cages.

It would be trivial to add a passive GPS repeater to the plane, but
the airtraffic industry has never been happy about people being
able to receive navigation signals inside planes, worrying that
somebody might try to blow up the plane at some specific place
(or non-place), so that ain't gonna happen.


-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
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Re: [time-nuts] Is it Hz or MHz ?

2014-06-02 Thread Tom Van Baak
Hi Kit,

For convenience, accuracy is often given as a relative, unit-less value. Think 
of values like 1%, or 20 ppm, or 5e-11. These are all are unit-less numbers. To 
translate to absolute units just multiply:

50 Hz times 1% is 0.5 Hz.
1 meter times 20 ppm is 20 microns.
10 MHz times 5e-11 is 500 uHz.
5 MHz times 5e-11 is 250 uHz.
1 MHz times 5e-11 is 50 uHz.
1PPS times 5e-11 is 50 ps.

Two issues arise with GPSDO specs:

1) When you talk about frequency, you have to specify the averaging 
interval(s). Performance can vary considerably depending on interval. It sounds 
your data sheet does this correctly.

2a) When you talk about time, there are often two meanings. One is relative 
time, as in pulse to pulse interval accuracy or stability. This is almost 
always the spec used in the commodity GPS receivers we play with. It's the only 
spec that matters if the receiver is used for a GPSDO.

2b) The other meaning is absolute time, as in conformance with UTC(k), where k 
is your local National Measurement Institute (NMI). This is a much more 
difficult problem, since it requires independent antenna + cable + receiver + 
TIC calibration against some portable gold standard, and likely 
re-calibrations every year.

/tvb

- Original Message - 
From: Kit Scally kitsca...@iprimus.com.au
To: time-nuts@febo.com
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2014 12:28 AM
Subject: [time-nuts] Is it Hz or MHz ?


 Team Nutters,
 
 
 GPSDO's are often specified for stability as so many parts per x.  Using a
 Symmetricom 8040C as an example, this has a quoted accuracy of typically
 5E^-11 at shipment.  Ageing (monthly and yearly) and ADEV stability rates
 for 1, 10  100 seconds are also given. This particular device as 1, 5 and
 10 MHz outputs.
 
 The question - is this accuracy with respect to 1Hz - or 10MHz ?  If the
 latter, then the accuracy figures quoted needs to be modified by 10^6 (Hz to
 MHz) to get a feel for the actual frequency changes at 10MHz.
 
 Glossies of many GPSDO manufacturers seem deathly silent on this point, so
 clearly, something is assumed.  I have seen an oscillator comparison chart
 by Meinberg (a German company) that in their comparison chart, the accuracy
 references need scaling to relate to 1Hz.
 
 Appreciate some advice and/or direction on this before madness overtakes me
 !
 
 
 Kit 
 Canberra
 Australia


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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Jim Lux

On 6/2/14, 1:55 AM, Tom Van Baak wrote:


Has anyone else noticed this? Or know about this? Please respond only if you 
have real information. I can speculate as well as anyone; so it's solid 
technical, RF, EMF, or composite carbon fiber engineering info I'm looking for.

I haven't noticed it myself, but when Beechcraft was making their pusher 
twin with carbon fiber, there was a whole raft of stuff they did to make 
sure it could take a lightning strike, including adding a conductive 
layer to the skin.  It doesn't have to be all that thick, since it's not 
structural.  This is a very real concern for carbon fiber components.


And, as you note, since the windows have electric shutters, there's 
probably an Indium Tin Oxide or similar coating on them, which would 
make an effective shield.

(http://gizmodo.com/5829395/how-boeings-magical-787-dreamliner-windows-work)

The basic rule on shielding is that holes where the perimeter is 1/2 
wavelength will pass some amount of RF, and when the perimeter is 1 
wavelength (e.g. a slot half wavelength long) will pass virtually all of 
it.  So your speculation about the windows in the plane being the 
pathway through which cell/gps/etc signals pass is a good one.



See also
http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/acaps/787.pdf

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Re: [time-nuts] Is it Hz or MHz ?

2014-06-02 Thread wb6bnq

Hi Tom,

My experience is the manufacturer's, of hp or fluke quality, reported 
error band (their spec sheet) is the worst case (or at least 3 sigma) 
provided that the device is operated according to the recommended 
environment, etc.


Nonetheless, my statement you quoted is still accurate as to the purpose 
of the specification.  Although I probably should have qualified a bit 
more.  It goes without saying that one should be careful when it comes 
to specmanship no matter who it is.


BillWB6BNQ

Tom Van Baak wrote:

The value of 5E^-11 refers to the resolution that the precision can be 
relied upon after taking into account all the factors that influence 
it.  It means that there is an error that can be as much as +/-5 parts 
per e^-11.
   



No, it can be way more. A 5e-11 spec value is likely just RMS, or 1-sigma. 
Actual measurements will show significantly larger 2-sigma, 3-sigma, etc. value.

Your as much as wording sounds more like a 6-sigma, or peak-to-peak spec.

One must be very careful to match the measurement used to make the spec with 
how the device is intended to be used. For example, Magnus will likely tell us 
about MTIE, which is a perfect-storm, worst-case time error spec. It's very 
different from rough 1-sigma specs we usually talk about.

/tvb


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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Jim Lux

On 6/2/14, 2:27 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:



It would be trivial to add a passive GPS repeater to the plane, but
the airtraffic industry has never been happy about people being
able to receive navigation signals inside planes, worrying that
somebody might try to blow up the plane at some specific place
(or non-place), so that ain't gonna happen.




I don't know that it's that reasoning.  It's more about the innate 
conservatism of people who make things that fly.


The reason for radio receiver ban originally was fear that Local 
Oscillator leakage would adversely affect cockpit instrumentation: 
particularly things like low frequency beacon receivers, which were none 
too selective, and since navigation using the ADF and tuning to a AM 
broadcast station wasn't unusual. I had to learn how to do it when 
taking flying lessons: it was widely acknowledged ( in 1980) to be 
nearly useless, but, hey, if all the other radios fail, any port in a 
storm, etc.  About the only older radio nav technology is A-N ranges (if 
you believe Wikipedia, they were gone by 1980 mostly disappearing by 
the 1970s)


Birdies in a consumer radio in your living room or car aren't a big 
problem. Birdies in a navigation instrument are a potentially big problem.


Even in the 1980s, there were a lot of planes flying with fairly archaic 
radios, although I suspect no commercial jet was using a VFO tuned 
radio:  they'd be using banks of crystals or PLL tuning. In general 
aviation, the first non VFO radios were from King in the 60s, and I 
think synthesizers came in around 1970 (King KX 170 and 175).  I was 
astounded at the number of crystals in one of my Narco radios when I 
took it out of the plane to fix it (a 1973-74 vintage radio).  Half that 
box was basically a big rotary switch and dozens of crystals.


Typical spurious responses in a COM or NAV receiver would be something 
like -60dB down, but a few milliwatts leaking from some guy's FM radio 
on board would easily be bigger than than that, since the receiver 
threshold is about 1 microvolt into 50 ohms (-110 dBm).


Once the rule is in place, it's very, very hard to get it removed, 
because of the if we allow X, and a plane has a problem, everyone is 
going to say it was because of X even if it wasn't, so let's just keep 
things the same.


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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Brian Lloyd
On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 8:57 AM, Jim Lux jim...@earthlink.net wrote:

 On 6/2/14, 2:27 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:


 It would be trivial to add a passive GPS repeater to the plane, but
 the airtraffic industry has never been happy about people being
 able to receive navigation signals inside planes, worrying that
 somebody might try to blow up the plane at some specific place
 (or non-place), so that ain't gonna happen.



 I don't know that it's that reasoning.  It's more about the innate
 conservatism of people who make things that fly.

 The reason for radio receiver ban originally was fear that Local
 Oscillator leakage would adversely affect cockpit instrumentation:
 particularly things like low frequency beacon receivers, which were none
 too selective, and since navigation using the ADF and tuning to a AM
 broadcast station wasn't unusual.


Well, it is quite unusual for IFR (instrument flight rules) operation. But
VFR pilots would sometimes use an AM broadcast station for navigation
assistance.


 I had to learn how to do it when taking flying lessons: it was widely
 acknowledged ( in 1980) to be nearly useless,


Not entirely. I still make sure my planes are equipped with ADF (LF/MF
direction finding) due to my experience with GPS outages over the Caribbean
and Atlantic. I have experienced outages of over an hour where both my
panel-mount and hand-held GPS receivers stopped working. ADF was all I had.
I suspect that since I was flying a plane popular with drug-smugglers (a
Piper Aztec), I was being tracked, followed, and GPS jammed. (I lived in
the Virgin Islands, traveling to Florida on a regular basis. I would stop
in the Turks and Caicos or Bahamas to refuel.)


 but, hey, if all the other radios fail, any port in a storm, etc.  About
 the only older radio nav technology is A-N ranges (if you believe
 Wikipedia, they were gone by 1980 mostly disappearing by the 1970s)

 Birdies in a consumer radio in your living room or car aren't a big
 problem. Birdies in a navigation instrument are a potentially big problem.


They could be and they are. Interestingly enough, the only radios that ever
interfered with my VHF nav receivers were my own VHF comm and nav
receivers. LO leakage from one radio would show up on one of the others. I
have never experienced that problem with any consumer device.

Even in the 1980s, there were a lot of planes flying with fairly archaic
 radios, although I suspect no commercial jet was using a VFO tuned radio:
  they'd be using banks of crystals or PLL tuning. In general aviation,
 the first non VFO radios were from King in the 60s, and I think
 synthesizers came in around 1970 (King KX 170 and 175).  I was astounded at
 the number of crystals in one of my Narco radios when I took it out of the
 plane to fix it (a 1973-74 vintage radio).  Half that box was basically a
 big rotary switch and dozens of crystals.


A crystalplexer radio that was dual-conversion with both LOs using
switched crystals. CB radios used the same thing back in the late 1960s and
early 1970s. PLL LOs came later.

Typical spurious responses in a COM or NAV receiver would be something like
 -60dB down, but a few milliwatts leaking from some guy's FM radio on board
 would easily be bigger than than that, since the receiver threshold is
 about 1 microvolt into 50 ohms (-110 dBm).


That may be true but I have never experienced it, even when I tried. The
only time I have ever experienced interference with my comm or nav radios
it was from another comm or nav radio in the plane. Most use a 10.7MHz IF
which means, for the spectrum from 108MHz-138MHz, you are very likely to
have a lot of overlap between LO and desired receive frequency.

Once the rule is in place, it's very, very hard to get it removed, because
 of the if we allow X, and a plane has a problem, everyone is going to say
 it was because of X even if it wasn't, so let's just keep things the
 same.


Amen.

-- 
Brian Lloyd
Lloyd Aviation
706 Flightline Drive
Spring Branch, TX 78070
br...@lloyd.com
+1.916.877.5067
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[time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Attila Kinali
Hi,

I know this is not exactly a time-nut question, but i guess this is
the best place i know to ask about this stuff.

I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these
things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay
(before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where every
boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of the
designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought that
with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that does
the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

Well, my problem now is, that i don't know how to build a VNA.
Yes, i understand the basic principle. I can come up with a design
that should work. But i have no clue about any problems or difficulties
in building these devices. Ie it's very likely that i fall into a dozen
traps when i try to build one.

I tried to get information on how to build a VNA, or what kind of trouble
people had operating one, but beside the VNA book[1] Rick mentioned a couple
of months ago and ko4bb's site (thanks man! your manual collection is a gold
mine!), my searches came out blank. As i'm quite sure that there is
information of that kind out there, i would like to ask whether someone
could point me to some documents, webpages, books, papers, etc that would
show me the detailed design of VNA, the problems people had with some
designs or anything else that would be of interest in such an endavor.


Also, any good resource on how to build a directional coupler that
does 10-3000MHz without going to exotic materials would be much
appreciated. All papers i found deal mostly with stuff above 5GHz.
Seems like low frequency couplers are considered a solved problem.


Attila Kinali

[1] Handbook of Microwave Component Measurements: with Advanced VNA Techniques
by Dunsmore, 2012

-- 
The trouble with you, Shev, is you don't say anything until you've saved
up a whole truckload of damned heavy brick arguments and then you dump
them all out and never look at the bleeding body mangled beneath the heap
-- Tirin, The Dispossessed, U. Le Guin
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Collins, Graham
There is a popular DIY VNA designed by N2PK, boards are available from a fellow 
in Ontario Canada, a quick google search should find the information for you.

Also, Sam Wettlerlin  has published much on his web site with respect to 
Scotty's Spectrum Analyzer project, VNA, return loss bridges, etc.

http://www.wetterlin.org/sam/

Also, there is an interesting project called the Poor Hams Scalar Network 
Analyzer (PHSNA) which may be of interest. There is an active Yahoo group. All 
that is missing is a phase detector to make it a simple VNA. Based on Arduino 
and the inexpensive AD9850/AD9851 DDS boards from Asia.

I'd like a VNA too but I am starting small with the PHSNA and will build from 
there. My needs are not that great, just as a learning tool and to support my 
ham radio tinkering.


Cheers, Graham ve3gtc




-Original Message-
From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf 
Of Attila Kinali
Sent: June-02-14 10:43 AM
To: time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] VNA design

Hi,

I know this is not exactly a time-nut question, but i guess this is the best 
place i know to ask about this stuff.

I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these things are 
horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay (before you say 
anything, remember i live in europe, where every boat anchor hast to travel a 
long way). But given that most of the designs that are on ebay are from the 80s 
and early 90s, i thought that with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with 
a design that does the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

Well, my problem now is, that i don't know how to build a VNA.
Yes, i understand the basic principle. I can come up with a design that should 
work. But i have no clue about any problems or difficulties in building these 
devices. Ie it's very likely that i fall into a dozen traps when i try to build 
one.

I tried to get information on how to build a VNA, or what kind of trouble 
people had operating one, but beside the VNA book[1] Rick mentioned a couple of 
months ago and ko4bb's site (thanks man! your manual collection is a gold 
mine!), my searches came out blank. As i'm quite sure that there is information 
of that kind out there, i would like to ask whether someone could point me to 
some documents, webpages, books, papers, etc that would show me the detailed 
design of VNA, the problems people had with some designs or anything else that 
would be of interest in such an endavor.


Also, any good resource on how to build a directional coupler that does 
10-3000MHz without going to exotic materials would be much appreciated. All 
papers i found deal mostly with stuff above 5GHz.
Seems like low frequency couplers are considered a solved problem.


Attila Kinali

[1] Handbook of Microwave Component Measurements: with Advanced VNA Techniques 
by Dunsmore, 2012

--
The trouble with you, Shev, is you don't say anything until you've saved up a 
whole truckload of damned heavy brick arguments and then you dump them all out 
and never look at the bleeding body mangled beneath the heap
-- Tirin, The Dispossessed, U. Le Guin 
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Scott McGrath
Attila

You might want to look at the N2PK and DG8SAQ vector network analyzer projects 
there are also some commercial USB based 'personal' network analyzers out there 
starting about 6K 

As for directional couplers. I would suggest buying vs building Mini Circuits 
has a line of high quality inexpensive couplers in both coaxial and surface 
mount at price points affordable for individuals these really are a solved 
problem.   

You could of course build waveguide based Couplers at lower frequencies they 
would be physically large but easy to construct if you have access to machine 
tools

Most commercial VNAs are still in the boat anchor class for size and weight at 
the office we have a RS 40 Ghz 4 port VNA and it's still huge and heavy along 
with a fleet of agilents

Sent from my iPad

 On Jun 2, 2014, at 10:43 AM, Attila Kinali att...@kinali.ch wrote:
 
 Hi,
 
 I know this is not exactly a time-nut question, but i guess this is
 the best place i know to ask about this stuff.
 
 I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these
 things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay
 (before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where every
 boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of the
 designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought that
 with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that does
 the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.
 
 Well, my problem now is, that i don't know how to build a VNA.
 Yes, i understand the basic principle. I can come up with a design
 that should work. But i have no clue about any problems or difficulties
 in building these devices. Ie it's very likely that i fall into a dozen
 traps when i try to build one.
 
 I tried to get information on how to build a VNA, or what kind of trouble
 people had operating one, but beside the VNA book[1] Rick mentioned a couple
 of months ago and ko4bb's site (thanks man! your manual collection is a gold
 mine!), my searches came out blank. As i'm quite sure that there is
 information of that kind out there, i would like to ask whether someone
 could point me to some documents, webpages, books, papers, etc that would
 show me the detailed design of VNA, the problems people had with some
 designs or anything else that would be of interest in such an endavor.
 
 
 Also, any good resource on how to build a directional coupler that
 does 10-3000MHz without going to exotic materials would be much
 appreciated. All papers i found deal mostly with stuff above 5GHz.
 Seems like low frequency couplers are considered a solved problem.
 
 
Attila Kinali
 
 [1] Handbook of Microwave Component Measurements: with Advanced VNA Techniques
 by Dunsmore, 2012
 
 -- 
 The trouble with you, Shev, is you don't say anything until you've saved
 up a whole truckload of damned heavy brick arguments and then you dump
 them all out and never look at the bleeding body mangled beneath the heap
-- Tirin, The Dispossessed, U. Le Guin
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[time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Mark Sims
I build and fly large model rockets.  Many use carbon fiber in their 
construction.   I can tell you that carbon fiber does conduct electricity... 
not quite as well as pure metals,  but pretty darn good... and the conduction 
is anisotropic (better conduction along the fibers than across their 
diameter...  and the same for thermal conductivity).   And that it makes a 
GREAT RF shield.   

Most of my rockets have tracking transmitters in them... most at around 220 Mhz 
  A single layer of 5 oz carbon cloth around a phenolic body tube can almost 
totally block the tracking signal of a transmitter that has a 20+ mile open-air 
range.  Once inside the carbon wrapped airframe,  it has a range of a couple 
hundred feet.  You get the tracking signal only when the rocket separates and 
the tracking transmitter is extracted from the airframe.   An interesting 
observation is that putting the transmitter in an aluminum airframe has little 
effect on its range.It seems that that the semi-condcutive properties of 
the carbon fiber is responsible for its RF properties.  
  
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Chris Albertson
Today you can do most of the processing in software.  All you need is A/D
and D/A converters that can handle the required bandwidth and get the raw
numbers into the computer.   Look up SDR type radios and search on the
combination of SDR and VNA and you'll find a few. Then with the same
hardware you have a VNA, spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope, low power
transceiver and so on.   This idea is somewhat easy through HF.


On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 7:43 AM, Attila Kinali att...@kinali.ch wrote:

 Hi,

 I know this is not exactly a time-nut question, but i guess this is
 the best place i know to ask about this stuff.

 I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these
 things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay
 (before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where every
 boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of the
 designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought that
 with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that does
 the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Chris Albertson
On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 1:55 AM, Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com wrote:


 But last week I flew the new composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner and noticed
 something quite different. From the second I entered the plane, I lost both
 cell and GPS reception. It didn't matter how close I was to a window or
 not.


I bet this is nothing to do with carbon fiber vs. aluminum skin.  Both
would have to be conductive.  I bet it's the metal film on the windows.
 The metal skin of the older planes would have been a perfect shield but
the windows let the signals in.  But on the new plane the windows have a
conductive metal film.  So I bet the difference is entirely because of the
change in window design.

Even in buildings some energy saving windows have coatings that are
conductive and don't allow GPS to pass.
-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Poul-Henning Kamp
In message 538c82b8.5020...@earthlink.net, Jim Lux writes:

The reason for radio receiver ban originally [...]

Actually, there was a very specific incident where somebody brought
a television on a plane in order to see something important.  We're
talking 1950-1960 timeframe and and a tube-television.

Apparently this disturbed something in the cockpit, but there is
no evidence to indicate that it was actually a problem in the
cockpit, only that they spotted some kind of noise.

And that's when and why the FAA introduced the ban.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Ed Palmer
There's a DIY project to build a spectrum analyzer at 
http://scottyspectrumanalyzer.com .  Since it's modular, one version of 
the project is to add a couple of modules that change it into a network 
analyzer.


If you search ebay for directional couplers, I can almost guarantee that 
you will find what you want at a reasonable price.


Ed

On 6/2/2014 8:43 AM, Attila Kinali wrote:

Hi,

I know this is not exactly a time-nut question, but i guess this is
the best place i know to ask about this stuff.

I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these
things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay
(before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where every
boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of the
designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought that
with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that does
the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

Well, my problem now is, that i don't know how to build a VNA.
Yes, i understand the basic principle. I can come up with a design
that should work. But i have no clue about any problems or difficulties
in building these devices. Ie it's very likely that i fall into a dozen
traps when i try to build one.

I tried to get information on how to build a VNA, or what kind of trouble
people had operating one, but beside the VNA book[1] Rick mentioned a couple
of months ago and ko4bb's site (thanks man! your manual collection is a gold
mine!), my searches came out blank. As i'm quite sure that there is
information of that kind out there, i would like to ask whether someone
could point me to some documents, webpages, books, papers, etc that would
show me the detailed design of VNA, the problems people had with some
designs or anything else that would be of interest in such an endavor.


Also, any good resource on how to build a directional coupler that
does 10-3000MHz without going to exotic materials would be much
appreciated. All papers i found deal mostly with stuff above 5GHz.
Seems like low frequency couplers are considered a solved problem.


Attila Kinali

[1] Handbook of Microwave Component Measurements: with Advanced VNA Techniques
by Dunsmore, 2012



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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Said Jackson
Wonderful. It also means cell phones will crank up their power searching for a 
signal, and the passengers are sitting inside a microwave oven since the RF 
energy can't escape.

Thankfully there are alternative ways to fly.

Bye,
Said

Sent From iPhone

On Jun 2, 2014, at 8:45, Chris Albertson albertson.ch...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 1:55 AM, Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com wrote:
 
 
 But last week I flew the new composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner and noticed
 something quite different. From the second I entered the plane, I lost both
 cell and GPS reception. It didn't matter how close I was to a window or
 not.
 
 
 I bet this is nothing to do with carbon fiber vs. aluminum skin.  Both
 would have to be conductive.  I bet it's the metal film on the windows.
 The metal skin of the older planes would have been a perfect shield but
 the windows let the signals in.  But on the new plane the windows have a
 conductive metal film.  So I bet the difference is entirely because of the
 change in window design.
 
 Even in buildings some energy saving windows have coatings that are
 conductive and don't allow GPS to pass.
 -- 
 
 Chris Albertson
 Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist



On 6/2/2014 7:43 AM, Attila Kinali wrote:



Also, any good resource on how to build a directional coupler that
does 10-3000MHz without going to exotic materials would be much


I once had the opportunity to discuss directional couplers with
Julius Botka, then with HP/Agilent.  Specifically, a true directional
coupler he designed that approached the range of 10-3000 MHz.  IMHO,
Botka was one of the greatest experts of all time in this area.
It took extreme attention to detail to get it to work.  It
didn't so much involve exotic materials, but rather expertise.
Don't try this at home kids.  Julius said that he designed it before
the era of cheap calibration.  Now that everyone has calibration,
you don't need a good directional coupler.  You can get away
with a MiniCircuits coupler.  But in fact it is
even easier to just use a resistive bridge.  Four ordinary
resistors will easily go to 3 GHz.  Use a differential amplifier
at the output.  Lots of info on this in the literature.

Another way to make in effect a directional coupler is to use
a 180 degree hybrid.  I also had the opportunity to study Alan
Podell's amazing designs and even have discussions with him.
I dissected one of his 10-3000 MHz hybrids.  (Originally made
by Anzac, now available from Macom Technology for about 5 Benjamins). 
Don't even think about trying this at home.


BTW, you didn't mention software, but that's a big part of
the job.

Rick Karlquist N6RK

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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Dr. David Kirkby
On 2 Jun 2014 10:03, Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com wrote:

 Now I have never had a problem with reception in the terminal, walkway,
or even while seated inside a plane. I figured the aluminum frame of the
plane was thin enough that photons at cell, GPS, and gamma frequencies
easily pass through the outer shell or the windows.

I do have quite a bit of data on that, having measured the attenuation both
in flight tests and on the ground. (I don't trust the latter anyway.) I
can't share it unfortunately.

But you should be aware of of how the systems in aircraft that allow one to
use a phone work. The cellular operators were keen that one could not cause
interference on the ground by a phone connecting to many base stations. For
this reason the planes incorporate a noise generator that raises the
background noise so that the phone cant hear any cell sites on the ground.
I would not expect that to be enabled below about 3000 m, but it is quite
possible that the noise generator was on.

I would not expect it to jam GPS frequencies,  but certainly those used by
mobile phones.

Dave
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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Michael Spacefalcon
Said Jackson saidj...@aol.com wrote:

 Wonderful. It also means cell phones will crank up their power
 searching for a signal [...]

At least with GSM, a mobile station needs to receive a base station
signal before it transmits anything at all.  If no cell network signals
are received at all, the mobile should not be transmitting anything at
all either, as without a base station signal it has no idea what
frequency channel it should be transmitting on, etc.  I would think
that the same principle would hold for all other widely deployed cell-
phone technologies..

 Thankfully there are alternative ways to fly.

Such as?

SF
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Attila Kinali
On Mon, 2 Jun 2014 11:09:55 -0400
Scott McGrath scmcgr...@gmail.com wrote:

 You might want to look at the N2PK and DG8SAQ vector network analyzer
 projects there are also some commercial USB based 'personal' network
 analyzers out there starting about 6K 

I've seen both and looked at their implementation. Especially DG8SAQ is
conceptually quite interesting IMHO (using the harmonics of an DDS chip).
But i'd like to get at least to 1.6GHz (think GPS) Otherwise i would have
ordered one of them already.

(Side note: i am not sure whether i will get to building a VNA. I am
currently just playing with the idea and try to learn about their function
as much as possible)

 
 As for directional couplers. I would suggest buying vs building Mini
 Circuits has a line of high quality inexpensive couplers in both coaxial
 and surface mount at price points affordable for individuals these really
 are a solved problem.   

Yes. But their SMD are only 3 port, ie the isolated port is internally
terminated. Which in turn means, i'd need to put two of those in to get
both transmitted and reflected wave.

 
 You could of course build waveguide based Couplers at lower frequencies they
 would be physically large but easy to construct if you have access to
 machine tools

I think all the Minicircuit ones are build using transformers. I cannot
think of any other way to get such a large bandwith in these small dimensions
otherwise.


Attila Kinali

-- 
I pity people who can't find laughter or at least some bit of amusement in
the little doings of the day. I believe I could find something ridiculous
even in the saddest moment, if necessary. It has nothing to do with being
superficial. It's a matter of joy in life.
-- Sophie Scholl
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Thomas S. Knutsen
The design of an VNA is an interesting thing. It requires quite high focus
on good RF practices and screening.

In the range 0-3GHz there is no low cost devices avaible, not counting the
copper mountain tech boxes ( http://www.coppermountaintech.com/ ). Up to
1.3GHz there is the DG8SAQ VNWA avaible from sdrkits, these can also be
used with mixers to extend the max frequency. The VNWA is an 2 detector VNA
that needs an S-parameter testset in order to get all the 4 S-parameters.

An homebrew alternative would be fun to do, but its a lot of work, both in
getting reproduceable data from the hardware and in programming. Building
somthing that is connected to the PC simplifies things a lot.
Couplers and detectors are not the hardest thing to make, some small SMD
resistors, an balanced amplifier - detector and things should work to 6GHz
or higher with some care in the layout.
Signal generation is perhaps the hardest part, there is AFAIK no single
solution working from LF to high UHF, one cool alternative is to build an
generator with an YIG and mixing down, but that requires a lot of work to
get stable over the range 0-3GHz. In addition you need to keep the signal
from the generator out of the detector in order to keep the dynamic range
high.
If you are building your own VNA, I would build it with 4 detectors and the
posibility to re-configure those. It opens for several of the more advanced
calibration methods and eliminates some of the errors in the VNA.

If I were to build something, I think I would base it on the N2PK design,
as there is documentation and programs avaible that makes for some part of
the work.

There are some IC's avaible that do the detection of the power levels,
AD8302 comes to mind, the common denominator for these are that they don't
solve for the phase sign, and thereby are not true vector. In addition,
those I have tested don't behave to well with

As an alternative, the HP8410 series are avaible here in the EU, sometimes
quite cheap, if you can wait a bit. Mine is mostly used at microwaves, with
some external mixers and testsets. If you are low on cash, this may be the
best approach, but it requires some work.

The accuracy of the VNA is determined by the calkit used to calibrate it.
There is no way around obtaining an good calkit, learning how to use it
without destroying it, and do repeatable calibrations. The calkit is the
single most important part of the VNA. Do use an calkit for the connectors
you are going to measure, don't add adaptors or worse, coaxial cable after
the calibration plane.

The book by Joel Dunsmore is excelent, highly reccomended if you are doing
or interested in VNA measurments.

BR.
Thomas.




2014-06-02 16:43 GMT+02:00 Attila Kinali att...@kinali.ch:

 Hi,

 I know this is not exactly a time-nut question, but i guess this is
 the best place i know to ask about this stuff.

 I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these
 things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay
 (before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where every
 boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of the
 designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought that
 with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that does
 the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

 Well, my problem now is, that i don't know how to build a VNA.
 Yes, i understand the basic principle. I can come up with a design
 that should work. But i have no clue about any problems or difficulties
 in building these devices. Ie it's very likely that i fall into a dozen
 traps when i try to build one.

 I tried to get information on how to build a VNA, or what kind of trouble
 people had operating one, but beside the VNA book[1] Rick mentioned a
 couple
 of months ago and ko4bb's site (thanks man! your manual collection is a
 gold
 mine!), my searches came out blank. As i'm quite sure that there is
 information of that kind out there, i would like to ask whether someone
 could point me to some documents, webpages, books, papers, etc that would
 show me the detailed design of VNA, the problems people had with some
 designs or anything else that would be of interest in such an endavor.


 Also, any good resource on how to build a directional coupler that
 does 10-3000MHz without going to exotic materials would be much
 appreciated. All papers i found deal mostly with stuff above 5GHz.
 Seems like low frequency couplers are considered a solved problem.


 Attila Kinali

 [1] Handbook of Microwave Component Measurements: with Advanced VNA
 Techniques
 by Dunsmore, 2012

 --
 The trouble with you, Shev, is you don't say anything until you've saved
 up a whole truckload of damned heavy brick arguments and then you dump
 them all out and never look at the bleeding body mangled beneath the heap
 -- Tirin, The Dispossessed, U. Le Guin
 ___
 

Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Attila Kinali
On Mon, 02 Jun 2014 09:46:38 -0600
Ed Palmer ed_pal...@sasktel.net wrote:

 There's a DIY project to build a spectrum analyzer at 
 http://scottyspectrumanalyzer.com .  Since it's modular, one version of 
 the project is to add a couple of modules that change it into a network 
 analyzer.

That looks very interesting. Thanks for the link!

 If you search ebay for directional couplers, I can almost guarantee that 
 you will find what you want at a reasonable price.

Yes. But if i ever build something, it should be reproducible for
others as well. Thus i don't want to rely on stuff from ebay which
can suddenly disapear.

Attila Kinali

-- 
I pity people who can't find laughter or at least some bit of amusement in
the little doings of the day. I believe I could find something ridiculous
even in the saddest moment, if necessary. It has nothing to do with being
superficial. It's a matter of joy in life.
-- Sophie Scholl
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Attila Kinali
On Mon, 2 Jun 2014 09:01:37 -0700
Chris Albertson albertson.ch...@gmail.com wrote:

 Today you can do most of the processing in software.  All you need is A/D
 and D/A converters that can handle the required bandwidth and get the raw
 numbers into the computer.   Look up SDR type radios and search on the
 combination of SDR and VNA and you'll find a few. Then with the same
 hardware you have a VNA, spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope, low power
 transceiver and so on.   This idea is somewhat easy through HF.

That's actually the base idea. Get some wide range synthesizer
(eg like HMC832LP6GE or LTC6946) for the test signal and one for
the detection part. Mix down the received signal and use some ADC
to move into digital domain. There preprocess the data in an FPGA
(data reduction) and do all difficult stuff in the PC.

Yes, it all sounds so easy. But i'm sure there must be some trap
in there, which i cannot see yet.

Attila Kinali

-- 
I pity people who can't find laughter or at least some bit of amusement in
the little doings of the day. I believe I could find something ridiculous
even in the saddest moment, if necessary. It has nothing to do with being
superficial. It's a matter of joy in life.
-- Sophie Scholl
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Dr. David Kirkby
On 2 Jun 2014 15:50, Attila Kinali att...@kinali.ch wrote:

 I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these
 things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay
 (before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where every
 boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of the
 designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought that
 with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that does
 the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

There are a few designs around.  The early version of the VNWA was
described in QEX. There is the N2PK design too. The latter has a limited
frequency range, but a high dynamic range.

All modern professional systems with two ports use 4 receivers.  Earlier
designs use 3 receivers which is not good for TRL calibration.

I think it would be a huge task. I think that the main issue would be the
software.
I have been considering adding the unknown thru calibration method to my
HP 8720D. That in itself would be quite a task, but writing all the
software for a VNA would be a huge task.

I thought TAPR had a similar project but I don't recall it producing
anything close to workable.

BTW the software options for the HP 8753's are now easily available,  so if
you do buy an 8753 (probably the best choice), don't worry about what
software options it has.

I would really like to see an open hardware and software VNA,  but it would
be a lot of work.

If you do it, think about having 3 or 4 ports with independent sources for
optimal balanced measurements.

I don't think that there's much point producing a design with just a TR
test set.

Dave.
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Attila Kinali
On Mon, 02 Jun 2014 09:35:41 -0700
Richard (Rick) Karlquist rich...@karlquist.com wrote:


 Julius said that he designed it before
 the era of cheap calibration.  Now that everyone has calibration,
 you don't need a good directional coupler.  You can get away
 with a MiniCircuits coupler.

How about impedance matching issues? Can those be calibrated away?

  But in fact it is
 even easier to just use a resistive bridge.  Four ordinary
 resistors will easily go to 3 GHz.  Use a differential amplifier
 at the output.  Lots of info on this in the literature.

I somewhat fear that the parasitics of resistors will give me
garbage when going to 1GHz. Maybe i should look into those and
calculate how much performance they would cost.


 Another way to make in effect a directional coupler is to use
 a 180 degree hybrid.

My understanding is, that those are rather narrow band.
Those i've seen were at most one octave in range.

 Don't even think about trying this at home.

You mention that for both Podell's and Botkas design. May i ask what
the reason is? Why do you think it cannot be done at home?

Also, i quickly tried to search for both Botka and Podell. While
Podell gives a couple of matches on ieeexplore, Botka comes back
almost empty. Any hints to for finding references to their work?
 
 BTW, you didn't mention software, but that's a big part of
 the job.

Because i have not had a look into that yet. My guess is that
phase detection of a known frequency (i ignore multi-tone detection
due to harmonics for the moment) is known and should be easy.
So the big part of the softare is getting thins into the PC and doing
a good job of presenting the data, ie GUI stuff. And GUI is, once you
have a graphical design, just implementation work.

Please correct me if i'm mistaken.


Attila Kinali
-- 
I pity people who can't find laughter or at least some bit of amusement in
the little doings of the day. I believe I could find something ridiculous
even in the saddest moment, if necessary. It has nothing to do with being
superficial. It's a matter of joy in life.
-- Sophie Scholl
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Dr. David Kirkby
On 2 Jun 2014 17:33, Ed Palmer ed_pal...@sasktel.net wrote:

 There's a DIY project to build a spectrum analyzer at
http://scottyspectrumanalyzer.com .  Since it's modular, one version of the
project is to add a couple of modules that change it into a network
analyzer.

But I think a VNA is an order of magnitude more complex than a SA - pun
intended!

The software is probably where the biggest work is.

A modular design for a VNA would be interesting, as different sources,
couplers etc could be used depending on frequency range.

Dave.
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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Bill Woodcock

I've flown on 787s three times before, and am about to do so again later today. 
 The prior times I used my cell phone as normal and didn't give it any thought. 
 This time I'll pay particular attention and report back.  Twice for me have 
been Ethiopian Air, once London-Addis, once Dulles-Addis. The third time was 
ANA Osaka-San Francisco.  Today will be London-Addis again, but a different 
actual plane, since the previous one is one of the ones that burned. 

-Bill


 On Jun 2, 2014, at 10:03, Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com wrote:
 
 1) When I fly I often use my iPhone while on the ground, before take-off or 
 after landing.
 
 2) I sometimes carry a GPS receiver. When permitted (varies by airline), it's 
 fun to log NMEA data for a flight and later plot the flight path and duration 
 with UTC accuracy.
 
 3) On occasion I also bring a logging Geiger counter. It's amazing how much 
 background radiation there is up at flight altitude compared to down at 
 ground level. You can go from 10 or 20 CPM (counts per minute) at home to, 
 say, 500! CPM at 40k feet. Those of you who live in mile-high Colorado enjoy 
 higher background levels. I know, because my Geiger counter was wonderfully 
 close to 60 CPM (= 1 CPS) in a hotel near NIST. Yes, I have the 1PPS ADEV 
 plot for this and, yes, background radiation makes the world's worst atomic 
 clock.
 
 Anyway, over the years I've collected some nice GPS 
 latitude/longitude/altitude data sets as well as background radiation as a 
 function of altitude. Just to be clear, I do turn off these devices according 
 to airline regulations.
 
 Now I have never had a problem with reception in the terminal, walkway, or 
 even while seated inside a plane. I figured the aluminum frame of the plane 
 was thin enough that photons at cell, GPS, and gamma frequencies easily pass 
 through the outer shell or the windows.
 
 But last week I flew the new composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner and noticed 
 something quite different. From the second I entered the plane, I lost both 
 cell and GPS reception. It didn't matter how close I was to a window or not. 
 I know the word composite sounds inert, but carbon fiber must be somewhat 
 conductive, yes? And there must be serious lightning suppression layers too, 
 maybe? Furthermore, the B787 windows are exotic; like giant oval LCD screens 
 which electronically dim from near transparent to very opaque. Does all this 
 make the new 787 a record-holding RF-tight flying Faraday cage?
 
 Is this the first airplane in history where a time-nut can't receive GPS? At 
 least gamma rays make it though, so I got RAD data. But no GPS data. Not a 
 single SV fix the entire time I was inside the plane.
 
 Has anyone else noticed this? Or know about this? Please respond only if you 
 have real information. I can speculate as well as anyone; so it's solid 
 technical, RF, EMF, or composite carbon fiber engineering info I'm looking 
 for.
 
 Thanks,
 /tvb
 
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Dr. David Kirkby
On 2 Jun 2014 18:14, Thomas S. Knutsen la3...@gmail.com wrote:

 The design of an VNA is an interesting thing. It requires quite high focus
 on good RF practices and screening.

 In the range 0-3GHz there is no low cost devices avaible, not counting the
 copper mountain tech boxes ( http://www.coppermountaintech.com/ ). Up to
 1.3GHz there is the DG8SAQ VNWA avaible from sdrkits, these can also be
 used with mixers to extend the max frequency. The VNWA is an 2 detector
VNA
 that needs an S-parameter testset in order to get all the 4 S-parameters.

 An homebrew alternative would be fun to do, but its a lot of work, both in
 getting reproduceable data from the hardware and in programming. Building
 somthing that is connected to the PC simplifies things a lot.
 Couplers and detectors are not the hardest thing to make, some small SMD
 resistors, an balanced amplifier - detector and things should work to 6GHz
 or higher with some care in the layout.
 Signal generation is perhaps the hardest part, there is AFAIK no single
 solution working from LF to high UHF, one cool alternative is to build an
 generator with an YIG and mixing down, but that requires a lot of work to
 get stable over the range 0-3GHz. In addition you need to keep the signal
 from the generator out of the detector in order to keep the dynamic range
 high.
 If you are building your own VNA, I would build it with 4 detectors and
the
 posibility to re-configure those. It opens for several of the more
advanced
 calibration methods and eliminates some of the errors in the VNA.

 If I were to build something, I think I would base it on the N2PK design,
 as there is documentation and programs avaible that makes for some part of
 the work.

 There are some IC's avaible that do the detection of the power levels,
 AD8302 comes to mind, the common denominator for these are that they don't
 solve for the phase sign, and thereby are not true vector. In addition,
 those I have tested don't behave to well with

 As an alternative, the HP8410 series are avaible here in the EU, sometimes
 quite cheap

I assume you mean 8510.

 The accuracy of the VNA is determined by the calkit used to calibrate it.
 There is no way around obtaining an good calkit, learning how to use it
 without destroying it, and do repeatable calibrations. The calkit is the
 single most important part of the VNA. Do use an calkit for the connectors
 you are going to measure, don't add adaptors or worse, coaxial cable after
 the calibration plane.

I had at one point an HP 8753A (3 GHz) VNA with a full S-parameter test
set. It cost me about 50% of what my HP 85054B 18 GHz N calibration kit
cost me and I think I got the 85054B cheap at about $3800.

I do sell low cost calibration kits for N, SMA and X-band waveguide.

Dave
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread David J Taylor
One which is, IMHO, good value for money is this one.  I've been very 
pleased with mine.


 http://sdr-kits.net/VNWA3_Description.html

Cheers,
David
--
SatSignal Software - Quality software written to your requirements
Web: http://www.satsignal.eu
Email: david-tay...@blueyonder.co.uk 


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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Don Latham
Those interested might look at RedPitaya.com for a new piece of hardware that
might be used. Less than $500 without a box
Don

Dr. David Kirkby
 On 2 Jun 2014 15:50, Attila Kinali att...@kinali.ch wrote:

 I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these
 things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay
 (before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where every
 boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of the
 designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought that
 with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that does
 the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

 There are a few designs around.  The early version of the VNWA was
 described in QEX. There is the N2PK design too. The latter has a limited
 frequency range, but a high dynamic range.

 All modern professional systems with two ports use 4 receivers.  Earlier
 designs use 3 receivers which is not good for TRL calibration.

 I think it would be a huge task. I think that the main issue would be the
 software.
 I have been considering adding the unknown thru calibration method to my
 HP 8720D. That in itself would be quite a task, but writing all the
 software for a VNA would be a huge task.

 I thought TAPR had a similar project but I don't recall it producing
 anything close to workable.

 BTW the software options for the HP 8753's are now easily available,  so if
 you do buy an 8753 (probably the best choice), don't worry about what
 software options it has.

 I would really like to see an open hardware and software VNA,  but it would
 be a lot of work.

 If you do it, think about having 3 or 4 ports with independent sources for
 optimal balanced measurements.

 I don't think that there's much point producing a design with just a TR
 test set.

 Dave.
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-- 
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who
have not got it.
 -George Bernard Shaw

Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL
Six Mile Systems LLC
17850 Six Mile Road
Huson, MT, 59846
mail:  POBox 404
Frenchtown MT 59834-0404
VOX 406-626-4304
Skype: buffler2
www.lightningforensics.com
www.sixmilesystems.com


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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Don Latham
Also, a convenient signal source with built-in attenuator:
http://www.rf-consultant.com/calibrated-signal-generator/
Don

Dr. David Kirkby
 On 2 Jun 2014 15:50, Attila Kinali att...@kinali.ch wrote:

 I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA. But these
 things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from ebay
 (before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where every
 boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of the
 designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought that
 with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that does
 the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

 There are a few designs around.  The early version of the VNWA was
 described in QEX. There is the N2PK design too. The latter has a limited
 frequency range, but a high dynamic range.

 All modern professional systems with two ports use 4 receivers.  Earlier
 designs use 3 receivers which is not good for TRL calibration.

 I think it would be a huge task. I think that the main issue would be the
 software.
 I have been considering adding the unknown thru calibration method to my
 HP 8720D. That in itself would be quite a task, but writing all the
 software for a VNA would be a huge task.

 I thought TAPR had a similar project but I don't recall it producing
 anything close to workable.

 BTW the software options for the HP 8753's are now easily available,  so if
 you do buy an 8753 (probably the best choice), don't worry about what
 software options it has.

 I would really like to see an open hardware and software VNA,  but it would
 be a lot of work.

 If you do it, think about having 3 or 4 ports with independent sources for
 optimal balanced measurements.

 I don't think that there's much point producing a design with just a TR
 test set.

 Dave.
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-- 
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who
have not got it.
 -George Bernard Shaw

Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL
Six Mile Systems LLC
17850 Six Mile Road
Huson, MT, 59846
mail:  POBox 404
Frenchtown MT 59834-0404
VOX 406-626-4304
Skype: buffler2
www.lightningforensics.com
www.sixmilesystems.com


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Re: [time-nuts] VNA Project

2014-06-02 Thread Kmec
Hello!
Most of the time I do not anything of significance to contribute, but VNA's 
 are near  dear to me. I currently have a grad student working on a poor  
mans VNA that will go to 2700 MHz. The issue is phase measurement over that  
range, which, even though there are a bunch of chips that purport to do 
this,  not really. So a synthesized tracking dual channel super het system is  
needed to measure phase over 0-360 degrees, where the phase component of the 
 vector is measured at a fixed frequency, comparing the reference to the 
test  channel.  A good starting place for understanding is the manual for the  
HP8410A/B/C VNA from the '80's, available online at Agilent. It will 
explain  many of the issue and provide a block diagram that you can modify with 
modern  components. Two synthesizers (or a dual with IF offset on one) are 
probably the  best way for the stimulus  receiver LO.
 
73
Jeff Kruth
WA3ZKR
 
 
In a message dated 6/2/2014 12:00:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
time-nuts-requ...@febo.com writes:

Message:  1
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 16:43:12 +0200
From: Attila Kinali  att...@kinali.ch
To: time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] VNA  design
Message-ID:  20140602164312.66b92049910fcab6c8aa8...@kinali.ch
Content-Type:  text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Hi,

I know this is not exactly a  time-nut question, but i guess this is
the best place i know to ask about  this stuff.

I recently got introduced into the usefullness of a VNA.  But these
things are horribly expensive for home use, even if bought from  ebay
(before you say anything, remember i live in europe, where  every
boat anchor hast to travel a long way). But given that most of  the
designs that are on ebay are from the 80s and early 90s, i thought  that
with todays ICs it should be easy to come up with a design that  does
the same thing but can be build on a kitchen table.

Well, my  problem now is, that i don't know how to build a VNA.
Yes, i understand the  basic principle. I can come up with a design
that should work. But i have  no clue about any problems or difficulties
in building these devices. Ie  it's very likely that i fall into a dozen
traps when i try to build  one.

I tried to get information on how to build a VNA, or what kind of  trouble
people had operating one, but beside the VNA book[1] Rick mentioned  a 
couple
of months ago and ko4bb's site (thanks man! your manual collection  is a 
gold
mine!), my searches came out blank. As i'm quite sure that there  is
information of that kind out there, i would like to ask whether  someone
could point me to some documents, webpages, books, papers, etc that  would
show me the detailed design of VNA, the problems people had with  some
designs or anything else that would be of interest in such an  endavor.


Also, any good resource on how to build a directional  coupler that
does 10-3000MHz without going to exotic materials would be  much
appreciated. All papers i found deal mostly with stuff above  5GHz.
Seems like low frequency couplers are considered a solved  problem.


Attila  Kinali

[1] Handbook of Microwave Component Measurements: with Advanced  VNA 
Techniques
by Dunsmore,  2012


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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Alexander Pummer
I do not wanted to discourage any body, but building the hardware of a 
network analyzer is not a simple task, and requires substantial 
instrumentation, software could solve hardware problems to certain limit 
only

73
KJ6UHN

On 6/2/2014 10:38 AM, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:

On 2 Jun 2014 17:33, Ed Palmer ed_pal...@sasktel.net wrote:

There's a DIY project to build a spectrum analyzer at

http://scottyspectrumanalyzer.com .  Since it's modular, one version of the
project is to add a couple of modules that change it into a network
analyzer.

But I think a VNA is an order of magnitude more complex than a SA - pun
intended!

The software is probably where the biggest work is.

A modular design for a VNA would be interesting, as different sources,
couplers etc could be used depending on frequency range.

Dave.
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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Bill Woodcock

I'm posting this from inside an Ethiopian 787, on the ground, with the doors 
closed.  I just completed a fifteen-minute voice call initiated from inside the 
plane, with reasonable reception and no drops, while the doors were open.  And 
I was able to get a new GPS location in less than two seconds (though that 
wasn't from cold boot, so I don't know whether it was able to accelerate the 
process using cached data previously received). The phone (an iPhone 5S) is 
showing three bars inside the plane, and was varying between three and four 
bars outside. Note that the non-linear mapping of signal strength to bars is 
a matter of intense negotiation between carriers and vendors, and shouldn't be 
taken as a literal indicator of anything at all.  Likewise, Ethiopian may have 
ordered planes with significantly different options than ANA (no center 
overhead storage in business, for example) and used different paint 
formulation. 

Nevertheless, in this specific case, I'm not seeing anything that seems 
out-of-the-ordinary relative to other aircraft. 

-Bill


 On Jun 2, 2014, at 10:03, Tom Van Baak t...@leapsecond.com wrote:
 
 1) When I fly I often use my iPhone while on the ground, before take-off or 
 after landing.
 
 2) I sometimes carry a GPS receiver. When permitted (varies by airline), it's 
 fun to log NMEA data for a flight and later plot the flight path and duration 
 with UTC accuracy.
 
 3) On occasion I also bring a logging Geiger counter. It's amazing how much 
 background radiation there is up at flight altitude compared to down at 
 ground level. You can go from 10 or 20 CPM (counts per minute) at home to, 
 say, 500! CPM at 40k feet. Those of you who live in mile-high Colorado enjoy 
 higher background levels. I know, because my Geiger counter was wonderfully 
 close to 60 CPM (= 1 CPS) in a hotel near NIST. Yes, I have the 1PPS ADEV 
 plot for this and, yes, background radiation makes the world's worst atomic 
 clock.
 
 Anyway, over the years I've collected some nice GPS 
 latitude/longitude/altitude data sets as well as background radiation as a 
 function of altitude. Just to be clear, I do turn off these devices according 
 to airline regulations.
 
 Now I have never had a problem with reception in the terminal, walkway, or 
 even while seated inside a plane. I figured the aluminum frame of the plane 
 was thin enough that photons at cell, GPS, and gamma frequencies easily pass 
 through the outer shell or the windows.
 
 But last week I flew the new composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner and noticed 
 something quite different. From the second I entered the plane, I lost both 
 cell and GPS reception. It didn't matter how close I was to a window or not. 
 I know the word composite sounds inert, but carbon fiber must be somewhat 
 conductive, yes? And there must be serious lightning suppression layers too, 
 maybe? Furthermore, the B787 windows are exotic; like giant oval LCD screens 
 which electronically dim from near transparent to very opaque. Does all this 
 make the new 787 a record-holding RF-tight flying Faraday cage?
 
 Is this the first airplane in history where a time-nut can't receive GPS? At 
 least gamma rays make it though, so I got RAD data. But no GPS data. Not a 
 single SV fix the entire time I was inside the plane.
 
 Has anyone else noticed this? Or know about this? Please respond only if you 
 have real information. I can speculate as well as anyone; so it's solid 
 technical, RF, EMF, or composite carbon fiber engineering info I'm looking 
 for.
 
 Thanks,
 /tvb
 
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Brooke Clarke

Hi:

I started with the HP 8410 and added an external computer.
Since it can be used manually I think it's an excellent way to learn about VNAs.
http://www.prc68.com/I/MWTE.shtml#NA

It turns out that when automating a VNA the same frequency is measured many 
times during cal and device testing.
If the frequency is not exactly the same errors are introduced. The early systems used sweep generators and harmonic 
locking which might lock to different harmonic numbers thus causing errors. Later systems used EIP frequency counters to 
phase lock the sweepers to minimize that problem and the newest systems use frequency synthesizers with good reference 
oscillators (Time Nuts content).


Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
http://www.end2partygovernment.com/2012Issues.html
http://www.prc68.com/I/DietNutrition.html



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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Dr. David Kirkby
On 2 Jun 2014 19:07, Alexander Pummer alex...@ieee.org wrote:

 I do not wanted to discourage any body, but building the hardware of a
network analyzer is not a simple task, and requires substantial
instrumentation, software could solve hardware problems to certain limit
only
 73
 KJ6UHN

VERY TRUE

The larger the hardware errors,  the larger the errors that need to removed
so the accuracy of measurements suffer with the slightest change in
temperature.

Adapters with a poor return loss BEFORE the calibration plane can still
cause problems with stability of measurements.

Despite error correction, it is not uncommon to do things like improve the
match at test ports with attenuators.

I think it would be unwise to embark on designing a VNA unless one has at
least used one first.  I don't think designing a VNA is the best way to get
one. Perhaps after buying one (8510 or 8753 is probably best) then
designing one is likely to be more productive.

Dave.
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[time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?

2014-06-02 Thread Bob Stewart
Now that my TIC is working with Bert's board, I'm considering taking the next 
step of designing a GPSDO from scratch.  There are several projects I'd like to 
do with a dsPIC33, so that was a natural choice.  But I now understand that it 
has an audio DAC and is not recommended for process control.  Could someone 
explain to me how such an audio DAC differs from a non-audio DAC and why it's 
not suitable for this application?  Is this just a disclaimer from microchip to 
avoid liability or is there some practical reason to go with a traditional DAC? 
 

On reading through the various datasheets, it appears to me that the concern 
might be that the input data to the DAC might be interrupted, thus causing it 
to go to some programmable safe output voltage.  My initial thought was just 
to control the value of the safe voltage and not bother to feed the DAC, though 
I haven't really explored the idea.

Bob - AE6RV
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Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?

2014-06-02 Thread Poul-Henning Kamp
In message 1401742940.44103.yahoomail...@web142705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com, Bob 
Stewart writ
es:

Could someone explain to me how such an audio DAC differs from a non
-audio DAC and why it's not suitable for this application?=A0 Is this just 
a disclaimer from microchip to avoid liability or is there some practical
reason to go with a traditional DAC?

A lot of them have DC protections, so you can't leave them at a particular
input value for very long before they go into safety mode and clamp the
output to zero.

Your speakers love them for this, your OCXO not so much.


-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist

On 6/2/2014 12:41 PM, Brooke Clarke wrote:

Hi:

I started with the HP 8410 and added an external computer.
Since it can be used manually I think it's an excellent way to learn
about VNAs.
http://www.prc68.com/I/MWTE.shtml#NA



For my last 8 years at Agilent before retiring in March, I
was doing advanced RD on network analyzers.  The newer
guys coming up didn't have an intuitive understanding of
network analyzer architectures like I did. I
started using the 8410 back in 1973 before I even worked
for HP.  Because of the modular design, it was like a
teaching tool that forced you to understand what was
going on.  When I mentored the young guys, I would
explain to them a lot of principles based on the 8410.
Modern network analyzers are too automatic.
The 8410 puts modern VNA's into perspective.  BTW, I used
to sit next to Dick Lee, who was a member of the 8410
design team in 1963 at the dawn of the golden age of
microwave instruments based on YIG tuned oscillators
and step recovery diode samplers.

As you noted, the architecture was built around the YIG tuned oscillator 
and certain things were done that way they were because of that.


Rick Karlquist N6RK
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Re: [time-nuts] Is it Hz or MHz ?

2014-06-02 Thread Magnus Danielson



On 06/02/2014 10:51 AM, Tom Van Baak wrote:

The value of 5E^-11 refers to the resolution that the precision can be
relied upon after taking into account all the factors that influence
it.  It means that there is an error that can be as much as +/-5 parts
per e^-11.


No, it can be way more. A 5e-11 spec value is likely just RMS, or 1-sigma. 
Actual measurements will show significantly larger 2-sigma, 3-sigma, etc. value.

Your as much as wording sounds more like a 6-sigma, or peak-to-peak spec.

One must be very careful to match the measurement used to make the spec with 
how the device is intended to be used. For example, Magnus will likely tell us 
about MTIE, which is a perfect-storm, worst-case time error spec. It's very 
different from rough 1-sigma specs we usually talk about.


Indeed.

ADEV measurements give RMS-ish values, 1-sigma values, and is intended 
for random noiseforms. When listing the frequency stability of an 
oscillator you usually specify the 3-sigma value. However, doing that 
for ADEV measures the usual way would give you a false sense of what the 
confidence intervals is, since you need to look at chi-square 
distribution instead for similar limits.


Then, systematic deviations exists also while being locked in. Those 
will dominate as you slip out of lock. For systematics, the MTIE may be 
a better measure to consider.


Cheers,
Magnus
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Re: [time-nuts] Note on early VNA's

2014-06-02 Thread Kmec
To the learned audience:
 
I agree that the 8410 is an excellent place to start to learn  about VNA 
architecture and issues. I, as well, learned the HP 8410, first  as manual 
system, then we did the automation ourselves (Westinghouse was too  cheap to 
buy a bundled system) using a 9825 desktop calculator, from the HP  app note 
of Semi-automated Network Analysis. My education in this regard was  
superb!  My industrious Vietnamese grad student is learning the issues from  my 
8410 books and he is building a more modern version. 
However, a slight clarification about the early VNA's: They were not YIG  
based, that came later. The classic HP8542A system was a BWO based system 
with  the 8690 Sweeper and a bunch of plug-in drawers that worked with a Signal 
 Multiplexer to yield a 1-18 GHz system. A 5100 based synthesizer was used 
to  lock the harmonic converter to eliminate harmonic skip cal errors 
(Brooke  alluded to this) and the whole mess was driven by an HP 1000 
mini-computer and  had a reel to reel tape drive for mass storage! It was huge 
( a 
three bay rack)  and cost $250K in 1968 money (a lot today, $1.5 M ??).  I had 
one of these  systems and still have parts of it! I automated my own newer 
8410 system in 1986  when I started my consulting company and used the 12 
term error model software  pak (HP11863??) in RM Basic on a 9826 computer (big 
step up!). While I do not  recommend this approach for anyone today, the old 
literature provides great  insight into the issues, where the errors come 
from and so on, as HP had figured  all this stuff out. It is a shame that 
shipping to Europe is so high, as a lot  of these systems and components are 
still around (I have six 8410 systems  still !). A mainframe is under $50.00 
and I bought a working 8411A converter for  $20.00 at Dayton this year (dont 
ask why, I guess it was too cheap).
  I had just about every variant of this stuff, VLF through 40 GHz.  Man, 
HP engineering was tops in those days!
Still, I think a very dedicated homebrewer could build his own design for a 
  3GHz VNA from adapted wireless parts, but I am too lazy for that. I 
much  prefer hacking some proven hardware into what I need.
 
73
Jeff Kruth
 
 
In a message dated 6/2/2014 5:47:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
time-nuts-requ...@febo.com writes:

Message:  7
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:36:09 -0700
From: Richard (Rick) Karlquist  rich...@karlquist.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency  measurement
time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: Re:  [time-nuts] VNA design
Message-ID:  538cee49.6000...@karlquist.com
Content-Type: text/plain;  charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

On 6/2/2014 12:41 PM, Brooke Clarke  wrote:
 Hi:

 I started with the HP 8410 and added an  external computer.
 Since it can be used manually I think it's an  excellent way to learn
 about VNAs.
  http://www.prc68.com/I/MWTE.shtml#NA


For my last 8 years at  Agilent before retiring in March, I
was doing advanced RD on network  analyzers.  The newer
guys coming up didn't have an intuitive  understanding of
network analyzer architectures like I did. I
started  using the 8410 back in 1973 before I even worked
for HP.  Because of  the modular design, it was like a
teaching tool that forced you to  understand what was
going on.  When I mentored the young guys, I  would
explain to them a lot of principles based on the 8410.
Modern  network analyzers are too automatic.
The 8410 puts modern VNA's into  perspective.  BTW, I used
to sit next to Dick Lee, who was a member of  the 8410
design team in 1963 at the dawn of the golden age of
microwave  instruments based on YIG tuned oscillators
and step recovery diode  samplers.

As you noted, the architecture was built around the YIG tuned  oscillator 
and certain things were done that way they were because of  that.

Rick Karlquist  N6RK



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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Alexander Pummer
Although I used to work for one of the competitor, I still do have a 
complete working 8410, Rick is right, it is a very nice teaching tool

73
KJ6UHN

On 6/2/2014 2:36 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:

On 6/2/2014 12:41 PM, Brooke Clarke wrote:

Hi:

I started with the HP 8410 and added an external computer.
Since it can be used manually I think it's an excellent way to learn
about VNAs.
http://www.prc68.com/I/MWTE.shtml#NA



For my last 8 years at Agilent before retiring in March, I
was doing advanced RD on network analyzers.  The newer
guys coming up didn't have an intuitive understanding of
network analyzer architectures like I did. I
started using the 8410 back in 1973 before I even worked
for HP.  Because of the modular design, it was like a
teaching tool that forced you to understand what was
going on.  When I mentored the young guys, I would
explain to them a lot of principles based on the 8410.
Modern network analyzers are too automatic.
The 8410 puts modern VNA's into perspective.  BTW, I used
to sit next to Dick Lee, who was a member of the 8410
design team in 1963 at the dawn of the golden age of
microwave instruments based on YIG tuned oscillators
and step recovery diode samplers.

As you noted, the architecture was built around the YIG tuned 
oscillator and certain things were done that way they were because of 
that.


Rick Karlquist N6RK
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Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?

2014-06-02 Thread Bob Stewart
Hi Poul,

I've been reviewing microchips literature and the way I read it is that the DAC 
isn't sensitive to staying at a fixed value.  If it's on, the FIFO is fed to 
the DAC.  If the FIFO is drained, then the user-settable default value is fed 
to the DAC.  When the output amp is turned off, it goes to a high impedance 
output.  I also noticed that Finput can vary from 0-45 khz.  I'm not certain 
what a 61db SNR would mean at DC values.  I see that the specifications are for 
a 15 uA load.  I assume that's not hard to meet with a typical op-amp.

It's interesting that in one paragraph they call the DAC default register a 
safety feature for industrial control applications, and then a few inches later 
a black box warns that it's not recommended for control type applications.  


Bob




 From: Poul-Henning Kamp p...@phk.freebsd.dk
To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency 
measurement time-nuts@febo.com 
Sent: Monday, June 2, 2014 4:08 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?
 

In message 1401742940.44103.yahoomail...@web142705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com, Bob 
Stewart writ
es:

Could someone explain to me how such an audio DAC differs from a non
-audio DAC and why it's not suitable for this application?=A0 Is this just 

a disclaimer from microchip to avoid liability or is there some practical
reason to go with a traditional DAC?

A lot of them have DC protections, so you can't leave them at a particular
input value for very long before they go into safety mode and clamp the
output to zero.

Your speakers love them for this, your OCXO not so much.


-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
p...@freebsd.org         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
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Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?

2014-06-02 Thread Chris Albertson
I think these kinds of DACs are meant to be clocked out at some fixed
sample rate, like 44.1KHz and your software has to stuff a FIFO so
there is some milliseconds of delay in the queue. Before you use
these write some pseudo-code and see if you can make it work.

One idea is to never write to the FIFO and change the default value
that gets written when the FIFO is empty, that way you never mess with
filling a FIFO thousands of times per second.

My Arduino's PWM outputs are working well.  The GPSDO has been running
now for months.  It's proof that you can do this with no external
active components.  I'm sure there must be some version of a PIC that
has analog outputs that can directly drive a XO's EFC pin.If you
need even one external IC, you'd be best off getting a different uP.



On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 2:02 PM, Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net wrote:
 Now that my TIC is working with Bert's board, I'm considering taking the next 
 step of designing a GPSDO from scratch.  There are several projects I'd like 
 to do with a dsPIC33, so that was a natural choice.  But I now understand 
 that it has an audio DAC and is not recommended for process control.  Could 
 someone explain to me how such an audio DAC differs from a non-audio DAC and 
 why it's not suitable for this application?  Is this just a disclaimer from 
 microchip to avoid liability or is there some practical reason to go with a 
 traditional DAC?

 On reading through the various datasheets, it appears to me that the concern 
 might be that the input data to the DAC might be interrupted, thus causing it 
 to go to some programmable safe output voltage.  My initial thought was 
 just to control the value of the safe voltage and not bother to feed the DAC, 
 though I haven't really explored the idea.

 Bob - AE6RV
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-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Re: [time-nuts] Note on early VNA's

2014-06-02 Thread Jim Sanford

Jeff:
Was really great to see you yesterday at BreezeShooters!  Hope to see 
you again soon, maybe better yet, chat on the air!

73,
Jim
wb4...@amsat.org

On 6/2/2014 6:11 PM, k...@aol.com wrote:

To the learned audience:
  
I agree that the 8410 is an excellent place to start to learn  about VNA

architecture and issues. I, as well, learned the HP 8410, first  as manual
system, then we did the automation ourselves (Westinghouse was too  cheap to
buy a bundled system) using a 9825 desktop calculator, from the HP  app note
of Semi-automated Network Analysis. My education in this regard was
superb!  My industrious Vietnamese grad student is learning the issues from  my
8410 books and he is building a more modern version.
However, a slight clarification about the early VNA's: They were not YIG
based, that came later. The classic HP8542A system was a BWO based system
with  the 8690 Sweeper and a bunch of plug-in drawers that worked with a Signal
  Multiplexer to yield a 1-18 GHz system. A 5100 based synthesizer was used
to  lock the harmonic converter to eliminate harmonic skip cal errors
(Brooke  alluded to this) and the whole mess was driven by an HP 1000
mini-computer and  had a reel to reel tape drive for mass storage! It was huge 
( a
three bay rack)  and cost $250K in 1968 money (a lot today, $1.5 M ??).  I had
one of these  systems and still have parts of it! I automated my own newer
8410 system in 1986  when I started my consulting company and used the 12
term error model software  pak (HP11863??) in RM Basic on a 9826 computer (big
step up!). While I do not  recommend this approach for anyone today, the old
literature provides great  insight into the issues, where the errors come
from and so on, as HP had figured  all this stuff out. It is a shame that
shipping to Europe is so high, as a lot  of these systems and components are
still around (I have six 8410 systems  still !). A mainframe is under $50.00
and I bought a working 8411A converter for  $20.00 at Dayton this year (dont
ask why, I guess it was too cheap).
   I had just about every variant of this stuff, VLF through 40 GHz.  Man,
HP engineering was tops in those days!
Still, I think a very dedicated homebrewer could build his own design for a
   3GHz VNA from adapted wireless parts, but I am too lazy for that. I
much  prefer hacking some proven hardware into what I need.
  
73

Jeff Kruth
  
  
In a message dated 6/2/2014 5:47:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

time-nuts-requ...@febo.com writes:

Message:  7
Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:36:09 -0700
From: Richard (Rick) Karlquist  rich...@karlquist.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency  measurement
time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: Re:  [time-nuts] VNA design
Message-ID:  538cee49.6000...@karlquist.com
Content-Type: text/plain;  charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

On 6/2/2014 12:41 PM, Brooke Clarke  wrote:

Hi:

I started with the HP 8410 and added an  external computer.
Since it can be used manually I think it's an  excellent way to learn
about VNAs.
  http://www.prc68.com/I/MWTE.shtml#NA


For my last 8 years at  Agilent before retiring in March, I
was doing advanced RD on network  analyzers.  The newer
guys coming up didn't have an intuitive  understanding of
network analyzer architectures like I did. I
started  using the 8410 back in 1973 before I even worked
for HP.  Because of  the modular design, it was like a
teaching tool that forced you to  understand what was
going on.  When I mentored the young guys, I  would
explain to them a lot of principles based on the 8410.
Modern  network analyzers are too automatic.
The 8410 puts modern VNA's into  perspective.  BTW, I used
to sit next to Dick Lee, who was a member of  the 8410
design team in 1963 at the dawn of the golden age of
microwave  instruments based on YIG tuned oscillators
and step recovery diode  samplers.

As you noted, the architecture was built around the YIG tuned  oscillator
and certain things were done that way they were because of  that.

Rick Karlquist  N6RK



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Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?

2014-06-02 Thread Bob Camp
Hi

There are several reasons why they don’t recommend the typical MCU DAC for 
control applications:

1) They are noisy at low frequency (1/f noise corner). That impacts their 
hitting their INL and DNL specs.
2) They have constant current leakage at DC. That makes their “center” value 
wander around by more than the spec’s would suggest. 
3) The major steps are trimmed for AC (high sample rate) compensation (the trim 
includes capacitance effects). At DC … no capacitance effects. 

Yes it’s all one big mess and the effects slop back and forth between the 
categories. Bottom line - they very much do not want you to measure their INL 
and DNL numbers on a continuous DC basis and then return the parts as being out 
of spec. MCU ADC’s can have some of the same issues. Even some pretty fancy 
outboard ADC’s only work well at DC if you put a chopper around them.

Bob

On Jun 2, 2014, at 7:22 PM, Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net wrote:

 Hi Poul,
 
 I've been reviewing microchips literature and the way I read it is that the 
 DAC isn't sensitive to staying at a fixed value.  If it's on, the FIFO is fed 
 to the DAC.  If the FIFO is drained, then the user-settable default value is 
 fed to the DAC.  When the output amp is turned off, it goes to a high 
 impedance output.  I also noticed that Finput can vary from 0-45 khz.  I'm 
 not certain what a 61db SNR would mean at DC values.  I see that the 
 specifications are for a 15 uA load.  I assume that's not hard to meet with a 
 typical op-amp.
 
 It's interesting that in one paragraph they call the DAC default register a 
 safety feature for industrial control applications, and then a few inches 
 later a black box warns that it's not recommended for control type 
 applications.  
 
 
 Bob
 
 
 
 
 From: Poul-Henning Kamp p...@phk.freebsd.dk
 To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency 
 measurement time-nuts@febo.com 
 Sent: Monday, June 2, 2014 4:08 PM
 Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?
 
 
 In message 1401742940.44103.yahoomail...@web142705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com, Bob 
 Stewart writ
 es:
 
 Could someone explain to me how such an audio DAC differs from a non
 -audio DAC and why it's not suitable for this application?=A0 Is this just 
 
 a disclaimer from microchip to avoid liability or is there some practical
 reason to go with a traditional DAC?
 
 A lot of them have DC protections, so you can't leave them at a particular
 input value for very long before they go into safety mode and clamp the
 output to zero.
 
 Your speakers love them for this, your OCXO not so much.
 
 
 -- 
 Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
 FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
 Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
 ___
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 To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
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Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?

2014-06-02 Thread Bob Stewart
Hi Bob,

I decided to look at Mouser for 16-bit DACs, and found the MAX541CCPA for 
$12.47.  On the one hand, it's an extra $12.47 for the project.  On the other, 
the dsPIC is a 3.3V device.  I'll have to give some thought as to whether I 
want to lose that much output range between the DAC and the EFC divider which 
will be placed right at the OCXO.  Given the flexibility of the dsPIC33 pin 
remapping, I may just add it to the board but jumper around it at first.  Hmm, 
I could just place it right at the OCXO, since I need to communicate with it 
with SPI.  TBH, I don't think I have the equipment needed to measure the noise 
unless it's really bad.  I'm already way past my ability to measure with my TIC 
daughterboard added to the VE2ZAZ board.

This is all new territory for me.  Should be fun.  =)

Bob



 From: Bob Camp kb...@n1k.org
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com 
Sent: Monday, June 2, 2014 8:01 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?
 

Hi

There are several reasons why they don’t recommend the typical MCU DAC for 
control applications:

1) They are noisy at low frequency (1/f noise corner). That impacts their 
hitting their INL and DNL specs.
2) They have constant current leakage at DC. That makes their “center” value 
wander around by more than the spec’s would suggest. 
3) The major steps are trimmed for AC (high sample rate) compensation (the trim 
includes capacitance effects). At DC … no capacitance effects. 

Yes it’s all one big mess and the effects slop back and forth between the 
categories. Bottom line - they very much do not want you to measure their INL 
and DNL numbers on a continuous DC basis and then return the parts as being out 
of spec. MCU ADC’s can have some of the same issues. Even some pretty fancy 
outboard ADC’s only work well at DC if you put a chopper around them.

Bob

On Jun 2, 2014, at 7:22 PM, Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net wrote:

 Hi Poul,
 
 I've been reviewing microchips literature and the way I read it is that the 
 DAC isn't sensitive to staying at a fixed value.  If it's on, the FIFO is fed 
 to the DAC.  If the FIFO is drained, then the user-settable default value is 
 fed to the DAC.  When the output amp is turned off, it goes to a high 
 impedance output.  I also noticed that Finput can vary from 0-45 khz.  I'm 
 not certain what a 61db SNR would mean at DC values.  I see that the 
 specifications are for a 15 uA load.  I assume that's not hard to meet with a 
 typical op-amp.
 
 It's interesting that in one paragraph they call the DAC default register a 
 safety feature for industrial control applications, and then a few inches 
 later a black box warns that it's not recommended for control type 
 applications.  
 
 
 Bob
 
 
 
 
 From: Poul-Henning Kamp p...@phk.freebsd.dk
 To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency 
 measurement time-nuts@febo.com 
 Sent: Monday, June 2, 2014 4:08 PM
 Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?
 
 
 In message 1401742940.44103.yahoomail...@web142705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com, Bob 
 Stewart writ
 es:
 
 Could someone explain to me how such an audio DAC differs from a non
 -audio DAC and why it's not suitable for this application?=A0 Is this just 
 
 a disclaimer from microchip to avoid liability or is there some practical
 reason to go with a traditional DAC?
 
 A lot of them have DC protections, so you can't leave them at a particular
 input value for very long before they go into safety mode and clamp the
 output to zero.
 
 Your speakers love them for this, your OCXO not so much.
 
 
 -- 
 Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
 p...@freebsd.org         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
 FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
 Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
 ___
 time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
 To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
 and follow the instructions there.


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Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?

2014-06-02 Thread Bob Camp
Hi

The DAC noise is likely “outside the loop” in a GPSDO. It’s not reduced by 
feedback. You can indeed find some of these parts that are noisy enough to 
degrade the ADEV or phase noise of an OCXO.

Bob

On Jun 2, 2014, at 10:13 PM, Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net wrote:

 Hi Bob,
 
 I decided to look at Mouser for 16-bit DACs, and found the MAX541CCPA for 
 $12.47.  On the one hand, it's an extra $12.47 for the project.  On the 
 other, the dsPIC is a 3.3V device.  I'll have to give some thought as to 
 whether I want to lose that much output range between the DAC and the EFC 
 divider which will be placed right at the OCXO.  Given the flexibility of the 
 dsPIC33 pin remapping, I may just add it to the board but jumper around it at 
 first.  Hmm, I could just place it right at the OCXO, since I need to 
 communicate with it with SPI.  TBH, I don't think I have the equipment needed 
 to measure the noise unless it's really bad.  I'm already way past my ability 
 to measure with my TIC daughterboard added to the VE2ZAZ board.
 
 This is all new territory for me.  Should be fun.  =)
 
 Bob
 
 
 
 From: Bob Camp kb...@n1k.org
 To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement time-nuts@febo.com 
 Sent: Monday, June 2, 2014 8:01 PM
 Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?
 
 
 Hi
 
 There are several reasons why they don’t recommend the typical MCU DAC for 
 control applications:
 
 1) They are noisy at low frequency (1/f noise corner). That impacts their 
 hitting their INL and DNL specs.
 2) They have constant current leakage at DC. That makes their “center” value 
 wander around by more than the spec’s would suggest. 
 3) The major steps are trimmed for AC (high sample rate) compensation (the 
 trim includes capacitance effects). At DC … no capacitance effects. 
 
 Yes it’s all one big mess and the effects slop back and forth between the 
 categories. Bottom line - they very much do not want you to measure their INL 
 and DNL numbers on a continuous DC basis and then return the parts as being 
 out of spec. MCU ADC’s can have some of the same issues. Even some pretty 
 fancy outboard ADC’s only work well at DC if you put a chopper around them.
 
 Bob
 
 On Jun 2, 2014, at 7:22 PM, Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net wrote:
 
 Hi Poul,
 
 I've been reviewing microchips literature and the way I read it is that the 
 DAC isn't sensitive to staying at a fixed value.  If it's on, the FIFO is 
 fed to the DAC.  If the FIFO is drained, then the user-settable default 
 value is fed to the DAC.  When the output amp is turned off, it goes to a 
 high impedance output.  I also noticed that Finput can vary from 0-45 khz.  
 I'm not certain what a 61db SNR would mean at DC values.  I see that the 
 specifications are for a 15 uA load.  I assume that's not hard to meet with 
 a typical op-amp.
 
 It's interesting that in one paragraph they call the DAC default register a 
 safety feature for industrial control applications, and then a few inches 
 later a black box warns that it's not recommended for control type 
 applications.  
 
 
 Bob
 
 
 
 
 From: Poul-Henning Kamp p...@phk.freebsd.dk
 To: Bob Stewart b...@evoria.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency 
 measurement time-nuts@febo.com 
 Sent: Monday, June 2, 2014 4:08 PM
 Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Audio DAC for GPSDO?
 
 
 In message 1401742940.44103.yahoomail...@web142705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com, Bob 
 Stewart writ
 es:
 
 Could someone explain to me how such an audio DAC differs from a non
 -audio DAC and why it's not suitable for this application?=A0 Is this just 
 
 a disclaimer from microchip to avoid liability or is there some practical
 reason to go with a traditional DAC?
 
 A lot of them have DC protections, so you can't leave them at a particular
 input value for very long before they go into safety mode and clamp the
 output to zero.
 
 Your speakers love them for this, your OCXO not so much.
 
 
 -- 
 Poul-Henning Kamp   | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956
 FreeBSD committer   | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
 Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Jim Lux

On 6/2/14, 7:16 AM, Brian Lloyd wrote:

On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 8:57 AM, Jim Lux jim...@earthlink.net wrote:


O, and since navigation using the ADF and tuning to a AM
broadcast station wasn't unusual.



Well, it is quite unusual for IFR (instrument flight rules) operation. But
VFR pilots would sometimes use an AM broadcast station for navigation
assistance.



Back in 1980, the examiner asked me how to do it, but didn't make me do it.






I had to learn how to do it when taking flying lessons: it was widely
acknowledged ( in 1980) to be nearly useless,



Not entirely. I still make sure my planes are equipped with ADF (LF/MF
direction finding) due to my experience with GPS outages over the Caribbean
and Atlantic. I have experienced outages of over an hour where both my
panel-mount and hand-held GPS receivers stopped working. ADF was all I had.
I suspect that since I was flying a plane popular with drug-smugglers (a
Piper Aztec), I was being tracked, followed, and GPS jammed. (I lived in
the Virgin Islands, traveling to Florida on a regular basis. I would stop
in the Turks and Caicos or Bahamas to refuel.)


I was referring to the AM station as beacon, and to be fair, they were 
all talking about compared to conventional VOR/DME, and maybe if you had 
one of them new fangled RNAV units that mathematically transformed 
VOR/DME into lat/lon, etc.





Once the rule is in place, it's very, very hard to get it removed, because

of the if we allow X, and a plane has a problem, everyone is going to say
it was because of X even if it wasn't, so let's just keep things the
same.



Amen.



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Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

2014-06-02 Thread Bill Reed

Hi,
I have an HP 8412B and an HP 8413A,  which go with the HP 8410, for $ 30.00 
( maybe less) each plus actual shipping.

They look good but I have no way to test then since I have no mainframe.
Contact offline if interested. I can email pictures.
They will be at the Huntsville Hamfest later this summer.

Bill Reed   ree...@otelco.net


-Original Message- 
From: Alexander Pummer

Sent: Monday, June 02, 2014 5:18 PM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] VNA design

Although I used to work for one of the competitor, I still do have a
complete working 8410, Rick is right, it is a very nice teaching tool
73
KJ6UHN

On 6/2/2014 2:36 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:

On 6/2/2014 12:41 PM, Brooke Clarke wrote:

Hi:

I started with the HP 8410 and added an external computer.
Since it can be used manually I think it's an excellent way to learn
about VNAs.
http://www.prc68.com/I/MWTE.shtml#NA



For my last 8 years at Agilent before retiring in March, I
was doing advanced RD on network analyzers.  The newer
guys coming up didn't have an intuitive understanding of
network analyzer architectures like I did. I
started using the 8410 back in 1973 before I even worked
for HP.  Because of the modular design, it was like a
teaching tool that forced you to understand what was
going on.  When I mentored the young guys, I would
explain to them a lot of principles based on the 8410.
Modern network analyzers are too automatic.
The 8410 puts modern VNA's into perspective.  BTW, I used
to sit next to Dick Lee, who was a member of the 8410
design team in 1963 at the dawn of the golden age of
microwave instruments based on YIG tuned oscillators
and step recovery diode samplers.

As you noted, the architecture was built around the YIG tuned oscillator 
and certain things were done that way they were because of that.


Rick Karlquist N6RK
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Re: [time-nuts] Boeing 787 GPS reception trouble

2014-06-02 Thread Brian Lloyd
On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 10:36 PM, Jim Lux jim...@earthlink.net wrote:

 On 6/2/14, 7:16 AM, Brian Lloyd wrote:

 On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 8:57 AM, Jim Lux jim...@earthlink.net wrote:

  O, and since navigation using the ADF and tuning to a AM
 broadcast station wasn't unusual.



 Well, it is quite unusual for IFR (instrument flight rules) operation. But
 VFR pilots would sometimes use an AM broadcast station for navigation
 assistance.


 Back in 1980, the examiner asked me how to do it, but didn't make me do it.


He wasn't allowed to. It is not part of the practical test standard for the
private pilot certificate. Still, it is useful.

I have been flying long enough to experience nearly every form of
electronic navigation available in aircraft. I have actually flown an
Adcock A/N range. I have landed an aircraft in instrument conditions
using precision approach radar (PAR or GCA). I have used ADF, VOR, DME,
RNAV, LORAN-C, INS, and now GPS. Airplanes haven't changed much but boy the
radios sure have!


  I had to learn how to do it when taking flying lessons: it was widely
 acknowledged ( in 1980) to be nearly useless,



 Not entirely. I still make sure my planes are equipped with ADF (LF/MF
 direction finding) due to my experience with GPS outages over the
 Caribbean
 and Atlantic. I have experienced outages of over an hour where both my
 panel-mount and hand-held GPS receivers stopped working. ADF was all I
 had.
 I suspect that since I was flying a plane popular with drug-smugglers (a
 Piper Aztec), I was being tracked, followed, and GPS jammed. (I lived in
 the Virgin Islands, traveling to Florida on a regular basis. I would stop
 in the Turks and Caicos or Bahamas to refuel.)


 I was referring to the AM station as beacon, and to be fair, they were
 all talking about compared to conventional VOR/DME, and maybe if you had
 one of them new fangled RNAV units that mathematically transformed VOR/DME
 into lat/lon, etc.


ADF is less accurate than VOR/DME. It is much less accurate than DME/DME.
It is archaic. But it works. If the beacon is at the airport itself ADF is
amazingly accurate for making an approach. It has a unique characteristic
that it is difficult to jam. (LORAN-C was better and I *REALLY* miss
LORAN-C as a backup to GPS.)

There are large stretches of the Atlantic and Caribbean where the only two
navaids that are available are GPS and LF/MF NDBs. Sure I can use
pilotage/ded-reconing and hop from island to island. But I have now
experienced multiple total GPS outages. It makes me nervous the dependence
we are developing on a system that is surprisingly vulnerable to a
denial-of-service attack.

I do hope that LORAN-C comes back. The original idea of the European
Galileo system to use LORAN-C to distribute DGPS data was brilliant. The
DGPS datalink was itself a source of high-quality time and position
information that is nearly impossible to jam. What a concept!

Has anyone considered how a large-area GPS outage would effect us? I
*really* don't like having all my eggs in one basket.

-- 
Brian Lloyd
Lloyd Aviation
706 Flightline Drive
Spring Branch, TX 78070
br...@lloyd.com
+1.916.877.5067
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