[time-nuts] Some comments on GPS timing

2018-05-23 Thread Tom Clark
Perhaps it is time that I step in to point the newer members of Time-Nuts to some of the historical (hysterical?) info on using  GPS to achieve sub-microsecond global timing sync. I refer you all to the website http://gpstime.com   that Rick Hambly (http://cnssys.com) maintains to document

[time-nuts] Jackson GPSTCXO question

2013-04-20 Thread Tom Clark
I'm evaluating a Jackson GPSTCXO that was in a Symmetricom Eval Kit. It's showing impressive perfomance with just the antenna in the window. I'm using either the Z38xx or GPSCon software. Are there commands that would allow me to 1. Force the receiver to do a self-survey and/or 2. Force the

[time-nuts] SK -- Den Connors, KD2S

2009-09-03 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Computers, and lived in Pepperell, Massachusetts. 73, Den -- you will be missed by all your friends! Tom Clark, K3IO ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow

[time-nuts] Den Connors, KD2S

2009-08-22 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
I'm sure that many early TAPRites remember TAPR's first President, Den Connors, KD2S. Den was active in Tucson circa 1982-83 at the formation of TAPR, during the TNC-1 days. Some info on Den can be seen at [1]http://www.tapr.org/history.html, as documented in the first PSR

Re: [time-nuts] homebrew 13 dBm distribution amplifier based on NIST design 5 to 100 MHz

2008-09-25 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Gerhard -- the discussion between you and Bruce has been very interesting. I asked a VLBI colleague to look over your design and he had this comment. In VLBI, H-Maser frequency standards used to generate local oscillators at microwave frequencies. We have problems with amplitude

[time-nuts] Distribution Amplifier

2008-08-26 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
-- Tom Clark ___ 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.

[time-nuts] The name Totally Accurate Clock

2008-08-05 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
-spoken factoids. So that's where the name came from and how it evolved. Tom Clark References 1. http://gpstime.com/ 2. http://gpstime.com/ 3. http://www.cnssys.com/ ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go

Re: [time-nuts] time-nuts Digest, Vol 49, Issue 4

2008-08-04 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Jim Palfreyman noted I took my recently acquired Thunderbolt, along with my 5370B, to the observatory on the weekend and plotted its residual against the NR Active Hydrogen Maser. See the attached graph (ignore the line of best fit heading - 0.00 was simply the starting point). Note that I

Re: [time-nuts] New leap second

2008-07-04 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Chuck Harris commented Two leap seconds in as many years! It must be that global warming. -Chuck Harris UT1 is the time measured with respect to the stars, while UTC and TAI are based on the rate of laboratory atomic clocks; I like to say that UT1 is the time you

[time-nuts] AMSAT Goes to the Races -- April 27

2008-04-22 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Many of you know, or have heard of, Jim Jaeger from Cincinnati. Jim is a MAJOR time-nut, owning a bunch of Cesiums and a couple of H-Masers in his basement time lab. Jim got his electronics start making amateur radios at RL Drake, and then he and Mike Valentine formed Cincinnati

Re: [time-nuts] AMSAT Goes to the Races -- April 27

2008-04-22 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
After posting the note about Jim Jaeger, I found another excellent report on the fire on the Channel 9 WCPO web site (http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=e73830c8-2941-455d-bd43-d18e86344af5). This includes extensive video coverage as broadcast the nite of the fire,

Re: [time-nuts] is there a best bet advanced hobbyist buildable GPSDOdesign?

2007-12-13 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Bruce Griffiths wrote: Data delay devices (http://www.datadelay.com) also do programmable delay lines their minimum order is $US75 which isnt too bad particularly if more than one sawtooth corrector is to be built. They even do ECL programmable delays as do Micrel (http://www.micrel.com).

Re: [time-nuts] paralleling regulator redux

2007-11-12 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
christopher hoover wrote: The October 2007 bulletin from Linear announces a new part : the LT3080 low drop regulator. They claim: The LT3080 is the first adjustable linear regulator that can be directly paralleled to spread the current load and thus spread dissipated heat. The architecture

Re: [time-nuts] 53131A or 5370B

2007-11-10 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] RETRY I have been a strong advocate for the 53131/2 counter since I first encountered in in 1993. Most of my applications are for a time-interval counter (TIC) measuring the time interval between an atomic clock and GPS

[time-nuts] Sorry -- Wrong Allan

2007-08-21 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] RETRY Said wrote: I talked to Paul Allan (Mr. Allan deviation) and Jack Kusters who both worked on the Z3816A development . . . . Sorry, but Said picked the wrong Allan. The Allan (often wrongly spelled Allen) of ADEV fame is

[time-nuts] Ron Bracewell, SK

2007-08-15 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
to read his 1975 book The Galactic Club. Rest well, Ron. Your genius profoundly affected many lives! Tom Clark References 1. http://news-service.stanford.edu/pr/2007/pr-bracewell-082207.html 2. http://www-star.stanford.edu/people/bracewell.html 3. http://www.amazon.com/Fourier

Re: [time-nuts] Oncore VP problem

2007-07-18 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
/cnsclock/Tac32Software.html . TAC32 knows all the quirks options that ever existed in a Motorola receiver, going all the way back to the Rev.3 PVT6. Then if you find it useful, a legal copy can be purchased from Rick, or at members discount from TAPR (http://www.tapr.org/gps_tac32.html). Tom Clark

Re: [time-nuts] Exact Rubidium frequency

2007-07-01 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To the best of my knowledge, the best measurement of the Rb ground state hyperfi ne frequency comes from the LPTF group in Paris, 6 834 682 610.904 333 Hz, with an accuracy of a few parts in 10^15, by

Re: [time-nuts] Software Sawtooth correction prerequisites?

2007-05-12 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Bruce Griffiths wrote: The Dallas delay lines aren't all that accurate, you need to calibrate them to acheive 1ns accuracy (read the specs) and then you have to worry about temperature variations. To use them you need to decode the sawtooth correction message from the GPS timing receiver.

[time-nuts] Updated VLBI tutorial available on gpstime.com

2007-04-25 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Next week the VLBI community is having another TOW (Technical Operations Workshop) at the Haystack Observatory NW of Boston. The audience for the TOW is mainly the technicians at each site who drive the telescopes and keep the hardware running. VLBI is crucially dependent on timing and every

Re: [time-nuts] Updated VLBI tutorial available on gpstime.com

2007-04-25 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Brooke Clarke asked: I didn't see in the VLBI slides what was done to tune the delay line, but did see a hint that there's been a firmware upgrade for it. Can you elaborate? Rick's latest version uses a delay line with more per-bit precision (now 150 psec steps). We also found that Motorola

[time-nuts] Comments on ADEV, MDEV, TDEV, etc

2007-04-10 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
I'll try to answer several of the questions at one time Brooke (no relation) Clarke Why is the Datum2000 so much better than the other receivers? It is a GPSDO. It is pretty obvious that the handover from the 2000's Rb to GPS is at ~1,000-10,000 seconds. Brooks Shera:

Re: [time-nuts] Frequency counter recommendations

2007-03-20 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
For over a decade in the VLBI world, we found that the HP53131 and 53132 (now Agilent, of course -- see http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5967-6039EN.pdf) were very good, low cost counters well suited to the time-interval world. GPIB is always a pain, and we found that the 131/132

[time-nuts] An Excellent Tutorial on Precision Clocks

2007-03-14 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
I just stumbled on an excellent tutorial on low-noise clocks -- National Semiconductors free downloadable [1]Clock Conditioner Owner's Manual. This 88 page document is a 3.7 MB PDF. 73 de Tom, K3IO References 1.

[time-nuts] Hanging Bridges

2006-12-19 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
[1]ftp://ftp.cnssys.com/pub/PTTI/PTTI_2006.pdfHal Murray said: Noise like the oncore sawtooth isn't always a bad thing. I was going to comment on that area... Thanks for the reminder. The problem is that the sawtooth isn't noise in the normal Gaussian sense. If you happen to hit a

Re: [time-nuts] Time Nuts at PTTI this past week

2006-12-11 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Magnus Danielson wrote: FYI -- the slides from Rick my paper entitled Improving the Performance of Low Cost GPS Timing Receivers presented at PTTI are now available at [1][1]http://gpstime.com/ as[2] [2]ftp://ftp.cnssys.com/pub/PTTI/PTTI_2006.pdf and That one is not there!!!

Re: [time-nuts] Time Nuts at PTTI this past week

2006-12-11 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Tom, how many M12M iLotus samples did you test to find the one with 30ns offset? Were these pre-production samples or mass production units? How did the other ones perform? Seems iLotus may not test/calibrate/inspect as thoroughly as

[time-nuts] Time Nuts at PTTI this past week

2006-12-08 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
, Cincinnati) Peter Lothberg(SM4KEL/W4KEL, Stockholm) Bob McGwier (N4HY, Princeton) Doug Hogarth (K4UTC, Seattle) Rick Hambly (W2GPS, Balto/Wash) Tom Clark (K3IO, Balto/Wash) Jim DeYoung(KG4QWC, Alexandria) Clive Green(G3???, UK) In the list above are counted 8 privately owned H-Masers, nearly 20 Cesium

Re: [time-nuts] time-nuts Digest, Vol 26, Issue 5

2006-09-11 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
The question was asked:: A more basic question. Do these degradations affect ordinary users? The reason I ask is that I have a GPS navigation system on in my truck 24/7 and use it every waking hour (I'm a retired engineer who's living a childhood fantasy - driving a long-haul 18-wheeler :-)

Re: [time-nuts] GPS Timing prob

2006-08-23 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Tom, yes, this clock granularity would be of interest. Do you have a more detailed description of how you guys implemented this? Also, how do you handle negative delays, e.g. the M12 is sending it's 1PPS too late? thanks, Said The

[time-nuts] Sawtooth Effects in 1PPS

2006-08-21 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Faisal Kahn asked I am currently working on problems with GPS timings, as I said in my previous e mails. I presented some of my problems and got quite helping feedbacks. I just wanted to update regarding my progress If u visit the page [1]http://www.leapse cond.com/pages/m12/sawtooth.htm you

Re: [time-nuts] Relationship of relative stability between distant locations using GPS and environmental factors

2006-08-13 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
Way back on June 30th, Stephan asked: A number of recent entries to this list have mentioned topics relating to GPS timing and environmental corrupting factors (e.g. Ionosphere, Temp., Humidity, etc.). Personally, I am very interested in setting up a very precise relative time between

Re: [time-nuts] 10811 Extra Lagging etc

2006-06-20 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO
TVB noted: If you are using the 10811 as part of a GPSDO the PLL should take care of any number of slow-moving changes in frequency; whether it's temperature, humidity, voltage, OCXO ageing, DAC drift, phase-of-the-moon, etc. So I don't see a compelling need to protect the OCXO in the ways

[time-nuts] How Rubidiums make their frequency

2006-04-19 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO (ex W3IWI)
Christopher Hoover asked: one issue remains: i have to crank the magnetic field setting almost to its high limit (9.91/10.00) to get 5 MHz out; lower settings give a frequency that is too low. i presume this is unusual. i have a rudimentary understanding of the rubidium

Re: [time-nuts] IC for 1 PPS Output

2006-04-07 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO (ex W3IWI)
John Ackermann took my name in vain: Hi Brooke -- The circuit I use is stolen from Tom Clark's TAC -- paralleling several sections of a 74AC04 hex inverter through 47 ohm resistors. For the current TADD projects, I'm using three sections that way, so each chip gives me two outputs, and

Re: [time-nuts] GPS Selective Availability. Is it On or Off?

2006-03-13 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO (ex W3IWI)
Chuck said I got the notion that it was turned off during Desert Storm, by virtue of being involved in the e-warfare effort that lead up to, and followed the event. I haven't been paying much attention since. I knew that they had intended to turn SA back on after production of the p-code

[time-nuts] S/A, Receiver Glitches, Y2K etc

2006-03-12 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO (ex W3IWI)
Don did not mention which basic receiver is inside his AUTEC box. Some receivers do exhibit glitches. Some of these are documented in my 2000 ION paper Low-cost, High Accuracy GPS Timing available on [1]http://gpstime.com. You might find some of the Timing for VLBI tutorials to be

Re: [time-nuts] Thought experiment on a low cost timing board

2006-02-24 Thread Tom Clark, K3IO (ex W3IWI)
I have done several GPSDOs using the NAVMAN receiver, so I add a few comments to the discussion: 1. Both the G3RUH ([1]http://www.jrmiller.demon.co.uk/projects/ministd/frqstd.htm) and I2PHD ([2]http://gpsdo.i2phd.com/) designs use 74HC390 divider chips; I also tried them. What I

[time-nuts] Xtal Oscillator Aging

2005-10-23 Thread Tom Clark, W3IWI
at that, the mechanical xtal resonator (which is built as a tuning fork for these low frequencies) is much better than any watch escapement ever was! 73, Tom Clark ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman

[time-nuts] Leap Seconds in the News

2005-09-28 Thread Tom Clark, W3IWI
Not intending to re-start the old controversy, but see this BBC News item: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4271810.stm Tom Clark ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts

[time-nuts] Re: time-nuts Digest, Vol 14, Issue 28

2005-09-17 Thread Tom Clark, W3IWI
. In some later standards (including even the inexpensive SRS unit), the tail-end frequency and FM are generated by a DDS driven from a clean unmodulated xtal and are not subject to as much noise. Regards, Tom Clark ___ time-nuts mailing list time

[time-nuts] Network Synchronization

2005-08-08 Thread Tom Clark
DC Tom Clark References 1. http://gpstime.com/ 2. http://ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov/meetings/tow2005/notebook.html 3. ftp://ftp.cnssys.com/pub/PTTI-2002/PTTI_2002_CNS_Testbed.pdf 4. ftp://ftp.cnssys.com/pub/PTTI-2002/PTTI_2002_CNS_Testbed.pdf

[time-nuts] Rescuing the Huygens Probe with VLBI

2005-08-04 Thread Tom Clark
Since I had posted some information on VLBI here, I thought you might find this article about VLBI tracking of the Huygens probe to be interesting. This was my program until I retired a couple of years ago: http://www.rtcmagazine.com/home/article.php?id=100355 Tom Clark

[time-nuts] Jupiter-T

2005-08-03 Thread Tom Clark
Rick Putz asked To All, Has anyone done any studies on the Nav Man Jupiter T and Pico T series receiver s? They use the SiRF chip set and provide a 10 Khz output that is said to be co herent with the 1PPS. Just curious. I did a lot of testing on the Jupiter-T that has an ONCORE VP

[time-nuts] Atmospheric effects in Geodesy

2005-08-02 Thread Tom Clark
Poul-Henning Kamp asked: Could you explain one little detail for me ? What is the mechanism that makes air pressure affect antenna height ? Is it simply the weight of the air on the ground ? Or is it because it affects the speed of light in the atmosphere ? The radio waves from outside

[time-nuts] H-Maser FYI

2005-08-01 Thread Tom Clark
/TOW/tow2005/notebook/Diegel.Sem.pdf For the masochists interested in the details of VLBI, the entire notebook of lectures presented is at http://ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov/meetings/tow2005/notebook.html. (Yes, I'm the Tom Clark listed on several of the presentations O:-) ) 73, Tom

[time-nuts] Re: time-nuts Digest, Vol 12, Issue 20

2005-07-10 Thread Tom Clark
://mysite.verizon.net/w3iwi/hpan1272.pdf. Tom Clark ___ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts

[time-nuts] Re: time-nuts Digest, Vol 12, Issue 15

2005-07-06 Thread Tom Clark
VLBI program -- [3]see more about the Goddard VLBI group here. You might enjoy some of my tutorials on how the VLBI stations get their UTC reference time so that their measurements of UT1-UTC can be derived at the catch-all repository [4]http://gpstime.com ] Tom Clark

[time-nuts] Re: VLBI

2005-07-06 Thread Tom Clark
David Forbes wrote: At 12:06 AM -0400 7/7/05, Tom Clark wrote: [As an aside, for many years until I retired, I headed NASA's VLBI program -- [3]see more about the Goddard VLBI group here. You might enjoy some of my tutorials on how the VLBI stations get their UTC