I find this interesting because a while ago I suggested something similar
where the system clock could be adjusted in order to synchronise with and work
rare DX stations whose clocks were significantly erroneous. I started
experimenting but lost interest when the particular problem I was having with
an African station just went away.
There is nothing wrong with adjusting the system clock if it is wrong. Many of
us use the Thinking Man software Dimension 4 which indeed does adjust the
system clock. There is similar software for other operating systems."Simply
put, Dimension 4 is the fastest and easiest way to synchronize your computer's
clock if you're running a Windows-based operating system. Once Dimension 4 is
installed, you'll most likely forget that it's even running. It's that
automatic."
The only scenario where I see that a utility to adjust the system clock is
required is where you are unable to connect to the internet or other time
standard.
I would not wish to burden the developers with the task of incorporating this
into WSJT-x. Instead I believe it should be a small stand alone application. It
does not need fancy algorithms. By inspection of the DT column in the Band
Activity window and ignoring outliers, if the balance between positive and
negative delta times is off then you would press a button to nudge the system
clock by (say) 1/10th of a second until the balance is restored.
Anybody ?
73 de G4SWY Del +++
On Thursday, 4 March 2021, 15:53:04 GMT, David Smith <dsm...@mypchelp.com>
wrote:
To clarify my use case and some reasoning:
1) Since WSJT is highly dependent on clock accuracy, there should be a way to
either manually or automatically sync the clock to received stations.2) I'm not
suggesting at all that WSJT modify the system clock. In fact, my suggestion is
that WSJT leave the system clock alone, and that we add a feature that allows
offset to the system clock.3) Using other devices or software to do this for
you adds complexity that isn't necessary; ntpd, chrony, GPS, all of these add
new dependencies and fiddles/adjustments that make using WSJT more complicated
to use.4) Really the main problem to solve here is portable operation. Adding
more software, or more hardware, to solve this problem uses more power and
reduces battery life.5) potentially, allowing an automatic offset adjustment
within the software itself to average the clocks of received stations has the
potential to completely eliminate the need for "accurate clocks" across the
board. Of course, this is assuming everyone using FT8 (as an example) was using
WSJT or software capable of this automatic adjustment. If I'm not mistaken
(which is entirely possible) clocks could be off by minutes, hours, days, etc,
as long as the second hand lines up with received stations.
On Thu, Mar 4, 2021 at 4:02 AM <wsjt-devel-requ...@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote:
Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2021 10:43:36 +0000
From: Alan <al...@alangroups.plus.com>
To: WSJT software development <wsjt-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [wsjt-devel] clock offset / fudge adjustment,
automatic/manual
Message-ID:
<177fcd5f3c0.27f6.308160ffa91046202f89ff6226309...@alangroups.plus.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; Format="flowed"
In my experience portable operation does indeed have a problem with
drifting clocks due to temperature variations, and particularly wind.
Internet connectivity may well be unavailable, so I've bought a cheap GPS
dongle that does the job just fine.
I'm not sure a fixed clock adjustment will deal with it though, because
I've found the drift on my laptop to be rather dynamic and it could soon
get out of step. I agree changing the system clock would be unwise.
Averaging received time differentials to provide a correction is an
interesting thought though, but in my view providing that was done only
inside WSJT-X and only for the current session - no changes to the system
clock itself, or permanent config changes.
Alan G0TLK
On 4 March 2021 07:31:47 Claude Frantz <claude.fra...@bayern-mail.de> wrote:
> On 3/4/21 1:53 AM, David Smith wrote:
>
>> Proposal:
>> Add an adjustment that allows you to manually adjust an offset to the
>> system clock. Being able to simply enter +/- seconds at the 100ths of a
>> second would be helpful, ie: "-2.3s" or "+0.9s"
>
> Hi David and all,
>
> If you use ntpd or chrony, you have the ability to insert this data in
> the appropriate config of these pieces of software.
>
> This has no place in the software using the time services.
>
> Best wishes,
> Claude (DJ0OT)
>
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