Re: [time-nuts] Need a Watch Recommendation

2018-03-14 Thread Bill Byrom
On Wed, Mar 14, 2018, at 6:53 PM, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> What is the most demanding task one would use a wrist watch for? 

It depends on your job or hobby. 

During the Apollo 13 rocket burn before their emergency re-entry, Jack
Swigert used a wrist watch to time the retrorocket burn which was
manually controlled by Jim Lovell. Their normal capsule chronometer was
inoperative. This was mostly a differential (time interval) timing
measurement.
If you needed to determine your location (longitude) and all you had
was a wristwatch and a sextant (and software or a table with certain
information), the accuracy of the distance calculation would depend on
the absolute time accuracy of the watch. At the equator the longitude
error due to time error is (40,075.16 km/day) / (86,400 sec/day) =
463.8 m/sec.
Amateur astronomers need to know time accurate to about a second or
better for accurate osculation observations.
Amateur Radio nets and phone, Skype for Business, or WebEx conference
calls usually start pretty close to the scheduled time. In some cases
people start wondering if the organizer is delayed after about 15 to
30 seconds.--
Bill Byrom N5BB



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Re: [time-nuts] Need a Watch Recommendation

2018-03-14 Thread Jean-Louis Oneto
The half dial in 02:00 with "S M T W T F S" looks like a weekday indicator to 
me.
Best regards,
Jean-Louis 




Envoyé depuis mon appareil mobile Samsung.

 Message d'origine 
De : Jeremy Nichols  
Date :14/03/2018  22:40  (GMT+01:00) 
A : Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement  
Objet : Re: [time-nuts] Need a Watch Recommendation 

Nice but lacks "day” feature (has “date”). I don’t normally care whether
it’s the 22nd or the 23rd but it’s nice to know whether it’s Tuesday or
Wednesday. YMMV, of course.

Jeremy

On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 1:57 PM Achim Vollhardt 
wrote:

> Dear Don and all,
> no mentioning of the Seiko Astron GPS Solar?
>
> http://www.seiko-astron.com/
>
> 73s
> Achim DH2VA
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> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
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> and follow the instructions there.
>
-- 
Sent from my iPad 4.
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Re: [time-nuts] Need a Watch Recommendation

2018-03-14 Thread Dr. David Kirkby
On 5 March 2018 at 16:50, William H. Fite  wrote:

> And that is just my point--well, part of it, anyway--ultra-precise
> measurement of time is profoundly important, and rightly the primary focus
> of this group. But for the wrist, very, very few of us need pin-point
> accuracy--though many seem to perceive that we do. My Tissot mechanical
> chronograph is right now doing a fantastic job of timing the eggs I'm
> boiling for my lunch.
>

What is the most demanding task one would use a wrist watch for? The doors
on trains in the UK lock up to 30 s before the train is due to leave. It is
most frustrating to arrive at a platform, with the train stationary, but no
way to get in. I would estimate that about 20 seconds is good enough for
making a decision about just how fast one has to run for a train.

Buying tickets for events like Wimbledon tennis in the UK can demand one
attempts at the right time, as tickets become available and sold out very
quickly. But one would be using a computer to purchase them, so I don't
think that comes under the requirements of a wrist watch.

Dave
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Re: [time-nuts] Need a Watch Recommendation

2018-03-14 Thread Jeremy Nichols
Nice but lacks "day” feature (has “date”). I don’t normally care whether
it’s the 22nd or the 23rd but it’s nice to know whether it’s Tuesday or
Wednesday. YMMV, of course.

Jeremy

On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 1:57 PM Achim Vollhardt 
wrote:

> Dear Don and all,
> no mentioning of the Seiko Astron GPS Solar?
>
> http://www.seiko-astron.com/
>
> 73s
> Achim DH2VA
> ___
> 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.
>
-- 
Sent from my iPad 4.
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Re: [time-nuts] Need a Watch Recommendation

2018-03-14 Thread Achim Vollhardt
Dear Don and all,
no mentioning of the Seiko Astron GPS Solar?

http://www.seiko-astron.com/

73s
Achim DH2VA
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Re: [time-nuts] Terrestrial GPS

2018-03-14 Thread Bob kb8tq
Hi

There *are* multiple different things that get tagged as “WiFi location” 
services.
One is a passive approach. They look at what your device can “see” and guess
your location. Another is an active approach. You are logged on to a WiFi system
and they try to back track your location though a trace route. I believe the 
initial
comment was related to the passive system.

Why does this stuff matter? 

Well, as you stroll around the mall with big piles of cash bulging in your 
pockets, 
the store you just passed wants to send you a coupon to drag you into the 
store. 
They feel the need to do this *after* (but not long after) you stopped and 
looked 
in the window. If you are on the floor above or the floor below the store … no
coupon. 

Doing this with timing based navigation (like GPS) is a bit tricky. You need to 
get
things sync’d good enough for < 3 M accuracy in a space with a lot of 
multi-path. 
Setting up a bunch of basestations that are sync’d to a few ns might seem 
simple, 
but it’s not. Without that sort of timing accuracy, they need to guess where 
you 
are by other means. 

All of this is independent of the issues regarding “do I want this to happen”. 
Diving
into that part heads even further off subject for this list …..

Bob

> On Mar 14, 2018, at 2:47 PM, Jeremy Nichols  wrote:
> 
> Apparently the database in my area is poor. Another location I am sometimes
> found in is *Fremont*, almost 100 miles southeast. Fremont most frequently
> shows up as the "closest store" when I am looking at (for example) hardware
> store web sites.
> 
> Jeremy
> N6WFO
> 
> 
> On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 10:15 AM Bob kb8tq  wrote:
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> WiFi based location can be pretty good or it can be a real joke. It all
>> depends on
>> how good the database happens to be and how many stationary WiFi setups you
>> can “see”. I’ve had it pop up with locations that are off by many miles.
>> ISP’s
>> feed you IP addresses via DHCP and the “on net” numbers are rarely visible
>> to
>> the casual passerby. , They likely are depending on other information
>> (like SSID
>> surveys from vehicles).
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>>> On Mar 13, 2018, at 11:15 PM, Bill Byrom  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Have you noticed that your mobile devices (smartphone, iPad, tablet PC,
>>> laptop PC) can often know your location when you inside a  building
>>> shielding you from GPS satellites (or producing multipath confusing the
>>> GPS receiver)? Here is a quick test you can do if you have a PC with no
>>> GPS receiver but with WiFi capability:
>>> Start up a browser and go to http://maps.google.com (which redirects to
>>> https://www.google.com/maps/...) with a WiFi connection. Near the lower
>>> right of the screen you should see the + - zoom buttons, and above these
>>> a target icon. Click that target icon. If asked, enable location
>>> finding. You may also need to enable your browser to release location
>>> information.  In my case, I am now sitting near the middle of my house
>>> and the laptop Windows 10 PC Google Maps locator places my location on
>>> the street adjacent to my house, about 25 meters or so from my actual
>>> location. My iPhone iOS map shows my location more closely (inside my
>>> house) and it very accurately shows the location of the minivan I parked
>>> in the driveway several hours ago (as "parked car").  My iPad also shows
>>> my location within my house.
>>> How do these devices know your location without GPS? Several methods are
>>> used to produce a hybrid positioning system[1]:(1) Your IP address from
>> your ISP. This gets me within a few km of my
>>>   location. See: https://www.iplocation.net/(2) WiFi positioning
>> system[2] - This makes use of databases which
>>>   contain the geographic location of WiFi access points. The data is
>>>   collected by methods such as comparing the GPS receiver location
>>>   reports of mobile devices with the signal strength of access
>> points.(3) Cellular radio location - Various techniques allow accurate
>>>   mobile phone tracking[3]. The signal strength and propagation
>>>   delay from cellular base stations allow moderately good
>>>   determination of location.
>>> If you are in an area without GPS receiver coverage, your mobile device
>>> or PC can determine the time using various techniques:(1) Crystal
>> oscillator for short-term time stability.
>>> (2) NTP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol
>>> (3) Cellular timing - cellular phone networks require very accurate
>>>   timing of the RF signals.
>>> It would be hard to place terrestrial transmitters on the GPS satellite
>>> frequencies without dynamic range and other problems, and of course
>>> someone could use this technique to jam GPS reception in an area. But
>>> several terrestrial geolocation and timing dissemination systems have
>>> been proposed, and some limited deployment has been achieved.
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NextNav
>>> http://www.nextnav.com/technology
>>> http://esatjournals.net/ijret/2013v02/i

Re: [time-nuts] Terrestrial GPS

2018-03-14 Thread Jeremy Nichols
Apparently the database in my area is poor. Another location I am sometimes
found in is *Fremont*, almost 100 miles southeast. Fremont most frequently
shows up as the "closest store" when I am looking at (for example) hardware
store web sites.

Jeremy
N6WFO


On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 10:15 AM Bob kb8tq  wrote:

> Hi
>
> WiFi based location can be pretty good or it can be a real joke. It all
> depends on
> how good the database happens to be and how many stationary WiFi setups you
> can “see”. I’ve had it pop up with locations that are off by many miles.
> ISP’s
> feed you IP addresses via DHCP and the “on net” numbers are rarely visible
> to
> the casual passerby. , They likely are depending on other information
> (like SSID
> surveys from vehicles).
>
> Bob
>
> > On Mar 13, 2018, at 11:15 PM, Bill Byrom  wrote:
> >
> > Have you noticed that your mobile devices (smartphone, iPad, tablet PC,
> > laptop PC) can often know your location when you inside a  building
> > shielding you from GPS satellites (or producing multipath confusing the
> > GPS receiver)? Here is a quick test you can do if you have a PC with no
> > GPS receiver but with WiFi capability:
> > Start up a browser and go to http://maps.google.com (which redirects to
> > https://www.google.com/maps/...) with a WiFi connection. Near the lower
> > right of the screen you should see the + - zoom buttons, and above these
> > a target icon. Click that target icon. If asked, enable location
> > finding. You may also need to enable your browser to release location
> > information.  In my case, I am now sitting near the middle of my house
> > and the laptop Windows 10 PC Google Maps locator places my location on
> > the street adjacent to my house, about 25 meters or so from my actual
> > location. My iPhone iOS map shows my location more closely (inside my
> > house) and it very accurately shows the location of the minivan I parked
> > in the driveway several hours ago (as "parked car").  My iPad also shows
> > my location within my house.
> > How do these devices know your location without GPS? Several methods are
> > used to produce a hybrid positioning system[1]:(1) Your IP address from
> your ISP. This gets me within a few km of my
> >location. See: https://www.iplocation.net/(2) WiFi positioning
> system[2] - This makes use of databases which
> >contain the geographic location of WiFi access points. The data is
> >collected by methods such as comparing the GPS receiver location
> >reports of mobile devices with the signal strength of access
> points.(3) Cellular radio location - Various techniques allow accurate
> >mobile phone tracking[3]. The signal strength and propagation
> >delay from cellular base stations allow moderately good
> >determination of location.
> > If you are in an area without GPS receiver coverage, your mobile device
> > or PC can determine the time using various techniques:(1) Crystal
> oscillator for short-term time stability.
> > (2) NTP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol
> > (3) Cellular timing - cellular phone networks require very accurate
> >timing of the RF signals.
> > It would be hard to place terrestrial transmitters on the GPS satellite
> > frequencies without dynamic range and other problems, and of course
> > someone could use this technique to jam GPS reception in an area. But
> > several terrestrial geolocation and timing dissemination systems have
> > been proposed, and some limited deployment has been achieved.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NextNav
> > http://www.nextnav.com/technology
> > http://esatjournals.net/ijret/2013v02/i04/IJRET20130204031.pdf
> >
> https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/us-master-clock-keepers-test-ground-alternative-to-gps--
> > Bill Byrom N5BB
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 13, 2018, at 5:17 PM, Stewart Cobb wrote:
> >> Peter Reilley suggests a backup to GPS using terrestrial
> >> transmitters. This> idea has been around since the early days of GPS.
> The terrestrial
> >> transmitters were called "pseudo-satellites", or "pseudolites"
> >> for short.> The big problem with this idea is that the GPS signal
> format has
> >> a narrow> dynamic range. The signal strength from a terrestrial
> >> transmitter varies> widely (inverse square law) from positions near the
> transmitter to
> >> positions far away. The variation in any practical system is
> >> larger than> the GPS signal format can handle. This is called the
> "near-far
> >> problem".> For an extensive discussion of the pseudolite concept,
> including the
> >> near-far problem, see my dissertation. You can find it with a
> >> web search> for my full name and the word "pseudolites".
> >>
> >> Cheers!
> >> --Stu
> >> _
> >> 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.
> >
> >
> > Links:
> >
> >  1. ht

Re: [time-nuts] Terrestrial GPS

2018-03-14 Thread Van Horn, David
I've seen wifi location reporting me almost 2000 miles east of where I am. 


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Re: [time-nuts] Terrestrial GPS

2018-03-14 Thread Bob kb8tq
Hi

WiFi based location can be pretty good or it can be a real joke. It all depends 
on 
how good the database happens to be and how many stationary WiFi setups you
can “see”. I’ve had it pop up with locations that are off by many miles. ISP’s
feed you IP addresses via DHCP and the “on net” numbers are rarely visible to
the casual passerby. , They likely are depending on other information (like SSID
surveys from vehicles). 

Bob

> On Mar 13, 2018, at 11:15 PM, Bill Byrom  wrote:
> 
> Have you noticed that your mobile devices (smartphone, iPad, tablet PC,
> laptop PC) can often know your location when you inside a  building
> shielding you from GPS satellites (or producing multipath confusing the
> GPS receiver)? Here is a quick test you can do if you have a PC with no
> GPS receiver but with WiFi capability:
> Start up a browser and go to http://maps.google.com (which redirects to
> https://www.google.com/maps/...) with a WiFi connection. Near the lower
> right of the screen you should see the + - zoom buttons, and above these
> a target icon. Click that target icon. If asked, enable location
> finding. You may also need to enable your browser to release location
> information.  In my case, I am now sitting near the middle of my house
> and the laptop Windows 10 PC Google Maps locator places my location on
> the street adjacent to my house, about 25 meters or so from my actual
> location. My iPhone iOS map shows my location more closely (inside my
> house) and it very accurately shows the location of the minivan I parked
> in the driveway several hours ago (as "parked car").  My iPad also shows
> my location within my house.
> How do these devices know your location without GPS? Several methods are
> used to produce a hybrid positioning system[1]:(1) Your IP address from your 
> ISP. This gets me within a few km of my
>location. See: https://www.iplocation.net/(2) WiFi positioning system[2] - 
> This makes use of databases which
>contain the geographic location of WiFi access points. The data is
>collected by methods such as comparing the GPS receiver location
>reports of mobile devices with the signal strength of access points.(3) 
> Cellular radio location - Various techniques allow accurate
>mobile phone tracking[3]. The signal strength and propagation
>delay from cellular base stations allow moderately good
>determination of location.
> If you are in an area without GPS receiver coverage, your mobile device
> or PC can determine the time using various techniques:(1) Crystal oscillator 
> for short-term time stability.
> (2) NTP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol
> (3) Cellular timing - cellular phone networks require very accurate
>timing of the RF signals.
> It would be hard to place terrestrial transmitters on the GPS satellite
> frequencies without dynamic range and other problems, and of course
> someone could use this technique to jam GPS reception in an area. But
> several terrestrial geolocation and timing dissemination systems have
> been proposed, and some limited deployment has been 
> achieved.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NextNav
> http://www.nextnav.com/technology
> http://esatjournals.net/ijret/2013v02/i04/IJRET20130204031.pdf
> https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/us-master-clock-keepers-test-ground-alternative-to-gps--
> Bill Byrom N5BB
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2018, at 5:17 PM, Stewart Cobb wrote:
>> Peter Reilley suggests a backup to GPS using terrestrial
>> transmitters. This> idea has been around since the early days of GPS. The 
>> terrestrial
>> transmitters were called "pseudo-satellites", or "pseudolites"
>> for short.> The big problem with this idea is that the GPS signal format has
>> a narrow> dynamic range. The signal strength from a terrestrial
>> transmitter varies> widely (inverse square law) from positions near the 
>> transmitter to
>> positions far away. The variation in any practical system is
>> larger than> the GPS signal format can handle. This is called the "near-far
>> problem".> For an extensive discussion of the pseudolite concept, including 
>> the
>> near-far problem, see my dissertation. You can find it with a
>> web search> for my full name and the word "pseudolites".
>> 
>> Cheers!
>> --Stu
>> _
>> 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.
> 
> 
> Links:
> 
>  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_positioning_system
>  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_positioning_system
>  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking
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