I want to say some things about the ES100 development kits we offer in our Universal-Solder online store.
First of all, please keep in mind that the entire development was done to fix reception issues with the older AM standard. When the WWV stations were installed, there wasn't a remarkable amount of "electro smog" those days, and the reception was probably more related to the length of your loopstick. Today we have a completely different situation, and standard "atomic clocks" pick up noise from so many devices like your phone charger, your flat screen, or even your 120V LED light bulbs, but are because of a lack on digital processing and filtering hardly capable of finding the amplitude shift in the noise floor. And this is, where BPSK comes to play, and what it was developed for: For a new generation of "atomic clocks" with substantial better reception in difficult or noisy environment, and within buildings. This said, WWVB BPSK is not meant to be more precisely than the AM standard, and in my opinion it can't even be, since there is digital signal processing and data transmission protocols involved. But who cares, when the second hand on a wall clock is 50ms behind? I actually hope the time error, caused by the function of the microcontroller and data communication, is better predictable, and time-nuts will figure out how to predict it. Some of you heard about the other chip, the ES200, since it was reviewed somewhere a while ago. But there is actually no plan I would know about, to have these chips manufactured. Finally, I want you to understand, that WWVB BPSK and the ES100 chip is still a low volume product, but with a multi-million development effort. And what we sell is a development kit, not a Chinese mass product. The price will most likely drop over the time, but a special deal with La Crosse, to make an affordable wall clock happen, can't by no means be the reference price for such a development kit. In the price of 68.50 CAD (roughly 52 USD) is also shipping included, which is not less than a minimum of 10 CAD to destinations in the US, where most of the kits go. But this is part of our shipping policy, to offer free shipping when the order value is over 30 bucks, and is not limited to the ES100 kits. The said above is my personal opinion, and neither influenced by, nor concerted with EverSet Technologies. Volker Forster _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com and follow the instructions there.