Re: [time-nuts] New to the list

2012-03-14 Thread Azelio Boriani
Hi George, welcome aboard. If you are a beginner about time and frequency don't forget to get and read what was pointed out to be our introduction to the subject http://gpstime.com/files/tow-time2011.pdf written by Tom Clark and Rick Hambly. On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 5:27 AM, Bill Hawkins

Re: [time-nuts] Austron GPS 2201a ops and serv manual uploaded to KO4BB site

2012-03-14 Thread Rob Kimberley
I forgot to add that the IF frequency used in the Austron 2201/2202 units is 75 MHz, and the Meinberg/Odetics is 35.42MHz, so they are not compatible without additional conversion. Rob -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of

[time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread Attila Kinali
Hi, I'm currently writing a short article on crystal oscillators and am looking for plots of typical phase noise and ADEV of an OCXO. But unfortunately, i couldnt find any, so far. Only discrete numbers from the data sheets, or phase noise plots only from scientific papers. Does anyone have

Re: [time-nuts] Austron GPS 2201a ops and serv manual uploaded to KO4BB site

2012-03-14 Thread Rob Kimberley
I know that the Meinberg works with the old Odetics units, but the IF frequencies are different on the Austron units. Rob Kimberley -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of b...@lysator.liu.se Sent: 14 March 2012 05:38 To:

Re: [time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread John Ackermann N8UR
On 3/14/2012 6:22 AM, Attila Kinali wrote: Hi, I'm currently writing a short article on crystal oscillators and am looking for plots of typical phase noise and ADEV of an OCXO. But unfortunately, i couldnt find any, so far. Only discrete numbers from the data sheets, or phase noise plots only

Re: [time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread Azelio Boriani
And don't forget the usual PDF http://gpstime.com/files/tow-time2011.pdfwhere you can find the comparison of typical Allan Deviations from various clocks on page 7. On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 1:52 PM, John Ackermann N8UR j...@febo.com wrote: On 3/14/2012 6:22 AM, Attila Kinali wrote: Hi, I'm

Re: [time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread Attila Kinali
On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:52:14 -0400 John Ackermann N8UR j...@febo.com wrote: Attila, TVB and I each have a bunch of plots of various oscillators at our web sites. Tom's are mainly under http://www.leapsecond.com/pages and http://www.leapsecond.com/museum; mine are under

Re: [time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread Attila Kinali
On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:05:03 +0100 Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it wrote: And don't forget the usual PDF http://gpstime.com/files/tow-time2011.pdfwhere you can find the comparison of typical Allan Deviations from various clocks on page 7. That's for an other article :-) This time, i

Re: [time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread Dave Martindale
Programs that try to turn text into a link will get the URL wrong due to a missing space. Fixed link: http://gpstime.com/files/tow-time2011.pdf On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 09:05, Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it wrote: And don't forget the usual PDF

Re: [time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread Jim Lux
On 3/14/12 6:23 AM, Attila Kinali wrote: On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:05:03 +0100 Azelio Borianiazelio.bori...@screen.it wrote: And don't forget the usual PDF http://gpstime.com/files/tow-time2011.pdfwhere you can find the comparison of typical Allan Deviations from various clocks on page 7.

Re: [time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread Magnus Danielson
On 03/14/2012 11:22 AM, Attila Kinali wrote: Hi, I'm currently writing a short article on crystal oscillators and am looking for plots of typical phase noise and ADEV of an OCXO. But unfortunately, i couldnt find any, so far. Only discrete numbers from the data sheets, or phase noise plots only

Re: [time-nuts] typical phase nosie and ADEV plot of an OCXO

2012-03-14 Thread Attila Kinali
On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 06:42:34 -0700 Jim Lux jim...@earthlink.net wrote: John Vig's presentation is a great place to start.. There's lots of copies in various places on the web (IEEE UFFC site, for one) Juup, that's where the idea for the article came from in the first place :-) And yes, there

Re: [time-nuts] New to the list

2012-03-14 Thread George Allen
I joined the list at the suggestion of Bill, Wb6BNQ. I am currently experimenting with several frequency standards, an Rb and an OCXO.  While I feel that I am able to measure frequencies with reasonable accuracy, I have no way of accurately determining time, so have ordered a T-Bolt.  I expect

Re: [time-nuts] The link to the introduction

2012-03-14 Thread George Allen
I understand the cartoon at the beginning; but, it will take me a very, very long time to understand the concepts of the paper! George K2CM Vestal, NY From: Azelio Boriani azelio.bori...@screen.it To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement

[time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread Chris Stake
Hello all, I purchased a FE5680A from a Chinese Ebay vendor. I have connected it to a 16.5V laptop supply, added 7805-based 5V rail and a PMOS Fet switch to drive a LED for the locked signal. I can communicate with it using the excellent Fe5680Calibrator software. As received the frequency

Re: [time-nuts] New to the list

2012-03-14 Thread Raj
Good one George. It is the obsessive compulsive time correcting disorder that we all have! Raj VU2ZAP The big question is why am I doing this? Just because I can. George K2CM ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread EB4APL
My fast approach would be to trigger a scope with the 1 PPS from the GPS receiver and observe the how the 10 MHz output of your Rb drifts. 1 full cycle per second is 1 e-7 so you'll need to use an stopwatch to time long periods when you are fine adjusting . Building (or buying) a GPSDO allows

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread Pete Lancashire
The first thing to consider is something to put the 5680 into. Search the list for temperature considerations. Basically you will need to heat sink the 5680. It can be run without, but won't last long. The technique I'm going to use it to heat sink the 5680 and with a pair of small variable speed

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread Bob Camp
Hi Consider that the noise on the 10 MHz output of the FE5680 is pretty bad. You may / may not want to propagate it all over your shop. At the very least, a simple band pass filter is needed. A better solution would be to lock a crystal oscillator up to the FE and use the output of the

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread Chris Stake
Nice idea, But I haven't got a DSO and the persistence of my scope isn't good enough to view 10Mhz sampled at 1pps. Chris -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of EB4APL Sent: 14 March 2012 15:46 To: time-nuts@febo.com

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread Bob Camp
Hi Do you have a dual channel counter that you can put the GPS into on the start and the FE into as the stop? The HP 5334, 5335, and 5345 are all examples of this sort of counter. Bob -Original Message- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of

Re: [time-nuts] Pretty ADEV/Tau plots

2012-03-14 Thread Chris Howard
These pretty ADEV/Tau plots, do people have an automated system to produce these things? How much work is involved? How many samples are taken? Sample for a month, omputer crunching for weeks? I have no feel for what the process is like. I have two oscillators and a Racal 1992 counter. If

[time-nuts] Found surfing the net - slides/presentation from FEI

2012-03-14 Thread Pete Lancashire
may not be new to many, but to someone new on the list http://www.ieee.li/pdf/viewgraphs/precision_frequency_generation.pdf ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts

Re: [time-nuts] Pretty ADEV/Tau plots

2012-03-14 Thread John Ackermann N8UR
On 3/14/2012 1:35 PM, Chris Howard wrote: These pretty ADEV/Tau plots, do people have an automated system to produce these things? How much work is involved? How many samples are taken? Sample for a month, omputer crunching for weeks? I have no feel for what the process is like. I have two

Re: [time-nuts] Found surfing the net - slides/presentation from FEI

2012-03-14 Thread EB4APL
On 14/03/2012 18:36, Pete Lancashire wrote: may not be new to many, but to someone new on the list http://www.ieee.li/pdf/viewgraphs/precision_frequency_generation.pdf ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to

[time-nuts] New atomic clock

2012-03-14 Thread Ralph Devoe
There's an interesting and more readable PRL by the same group, published last year on June 2 . Its on arXiv: 1110.2379v1 . or PRL 106, 223001 (2011). They have already built the trap and have laser-cooled the Thorium ions (cool pictures of the ion crystals). Their current problem is

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread Chris Stake
Hi Bob, Thanks for pointing-out the noisy output of the FE5680A. I'll probably try to lock a crystal oscillator to it. Unfortunately I don't have a suitable counter. I was hoping I could use some sort of higher frequency standard but I confess I had not really grasped the fact that the unit may

[time-nuts] NIST's WWVB phase modulation format paper from PTTI 2011

2012-03-14 Thread John Seamons
Here is a copy of the paper NIST co-authored describing the new WWVB phase modulation format: http://jks.com/wwvb.pdf (2MB PDF) John Lowe from NIST said I could redistribute it to the list. It will be available on the NIST website sometime in April once the official PTTI 2011

Re: [time-nuts] NIST's WWVB phase modulation format paper from PTTI 2011

2012-03-14 Thread J. Forster
Has anybody looked at the impact of the periodic phase reversals of BPSK on the loop of phase-tracking receivers, like the Fluke or the HP 117A? NIST does claim backward compatability for time. But what about time interval? I know you can extract the carries from BPSK with a Costas Loop (which

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread Bob Camp
Hi At least the don't mess to much with it part has sunk in. That puts you ahead of most people at this point. A usable counter should be a sub $100 sort of thing either at auction or surplus. With some careful shopping it can be a sub $40 item. Bob On Mar 14, 2012, at 4:25 PM, Chris Stake

[time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Brooke Clarke
Hi: I sure would like a WWVB BPSK receiver for the new modulation. The processing gains described in the paper John Seamons linked describes processing gains that are tens of dB above what's possible with the old AM data format. John has also measures the experimental phase modulation

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Poul-Henning Kamp
In message 4f6116ce.7080...@pacific.net, Brooke Clarke writes: I sure would like a WWVB BPSK receiver for the new modulation. I've been playing with SDR and VLF signals for ages. What you want is an antenna, a 1MSPS ADC and a fast-ish CPU. One very interesting thing you can do with that, is

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Azelio Boriani
The first move will be to familiarize with this new modulation format. Of course I can't receive the WWVB but the DCF77 maybe a good test for me. On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 11:08 PM, Brooke Clarke bro...@pacific.net wrote: Hi: I sure would like a WWVB BPSK receiver for the new modulation. The

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Marek Peca
Dear Time-Nuts, (new at this list, but reading for long time excellent timekeeping oscillator articles) I sure would like a WWVB BPSK receiver for the new modulation. (..) I'm sure in time there will be plenty of low cost ICs designed to receive the new signal, but my guess is that many

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread J. Forster
All very nice, but if this change renders all existing receivers useless. How does that improve things? All it does is wipe out all the existing phase tracking infrastructure. The only benefit is to the government who can reuse the WWVB transmitter and frequency allocation. Everybody else will

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Chris Albertson
On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 3:08 PM, Brooke Clarke bro...@pacific.net wrote: Hi: I sure would like a WWVB BPSK receiver for the new modulation.  The processing gains described in the paper John Seamons linked describes processing gains that are tens of dB above what's possible with the old AM

Re: [time-nuts] Austron GPS 2201a ops and serv manual uploaded to KO4BB site

2012-03-14 Thread paul swed
There seems to be a strong likelihood that the 2201 is compatable with the mienburg. Thats what I believe Doug actually has. If there some detailed info in your link I will take a look. On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 1:38 AM, b...@lysator.liu.se wrote: Paul, Thanks to Doug above I am trying two

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX N2469R
Asus has a $30 Xonar PCI soundcard that should do the job. I have two of the the more expensive pci-e versions. Some motherboards can do a/d at 192 but not as well as the Xonar. I made a 60 KHz antenna by winding a zillion turns on a ferrite rod and a padder going into the gate of a FET.

Re: [time-nuts] Austron GPS 2201a ops and serv manual uploaded to KO4BB site

2012-03-14 Thread paul swed
OK the updates. The issue is the 2201 is a 75.42 Mhz IF and most of these alternates are 35.42. Hmmm sounds like adding 40 Mhz gets you the answer. Thats exactly what I did with the odetics converter from Pete L. Took 10 Mhz from 2201 4 X to 40 mix with 35.42 buffer and send to the 2201. Locks

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Marek Peca
I will share my few bits of worked experience. But it may seem obvious. I'd say to go 100% SDR. In other words a simple front and that pushes as much of the functionality into software as possible. The carrier is only 60K. That is low enough that one can directly digitize the RF using an

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread Chris Albertson
On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 8:17 AM, Chris Stake st...@btinternet.com wrote: Hello all, I purchased a FE5680A from a Chinese  Ebay vendor. I have connected it to a 16.5V laptop supply, added 7805-based 5V rail and a PMOS Fet switch to drive a LED for the locked signal. I can communicate with it

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Poul-Henning Kamp
In message Pine.LNX.4.64.1203142345310.2459@tesla, Marek Peca writes: I will share my few bits of worked experience. But it may seem obvious. I'd say to go 100% SDR. In other words a simple front and that pushes as much of the functionality into software as possible. The carrier is only

Re: [time-nuts] New atomic clock

2012-03-14 Thread Joseph Gray
If neutrinos can have mass, then I guess neutrons can have orbits. But what do I know? It's all Greek (letters) to me :-) Joe Gray W5JG       If you google nuclear shell model you'll find a good Wikipedia article on the nuclear energy levels. Oddly enough, there is a similarity between the

Re: [time-nuts] FE5680A Calibration

2012-03-14 Thread David
I picked up a gimpy Beckman UC10 universal counter not long ago for about $10 from Ebay. Even better, I just repaired a Tektronix 7D15 (it has a whole board full of those junk TI integrated circuit sockets which need to be replaced) although you need to leave an entire oscilloscope mainframe on

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Brooke Clarke
Hi John: They are going to maintain the existing AM modulation format so all the WWVB Atomic Clocks will still work. The phase modulation is added on top of that. Yes, I expect my HP 117 may no longer work, but I'd much rather have the improved s/n and timing accuracy. Have Fun, Brooke

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread J. Forster
Brooke, As I've said, I don't care about the Time. The time determined by the start of TV or radio programs is plenty good enough to keep any appointments. My only interest is as a standard of Time Interval as a reference for synthesizers, counters, etc. If you think about it, unless you are

[time-nuts] broadband MPX signal stereo

2012-03-14 Thread ehydra
Hi! I'm looking for a sampled wave-file from a radio receiver MPX-signal including the RDS frequency band around 57KHz. I searched the Net but found just nothing that worked. So I ask here. Maybe someone has the possibility to sample a couple of seconds. Thank you all! - Henry --

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread paul swed
I am afraid that like John my concern is the frequency reference. Time? Heck it comes by the internet, WWV or GPS and lastly good old watches that do pretty well these days. No comments on celphones. So the term is screwed. All of the sampling and computer processing may indeed loose the primary

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread WB6BNQ
Brooke, In speaking with John Lowe of NIST (Group Leader for Time Frequency service), he stated that the absolute time recovery of their intended new modulation scheme is 10 milliseconds. Nothing stellar there ! BUT you are right, all of us that have hp-117 type receivers are just out of

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread paul swed
OK thats great a maybe pic chip answer. They do cure all ill's after all. Really scratching my head here. But I do think there is an answer as long as the phase reversal is accurately controlled and still referenced to the reference standard. A I say I need to read. Regards Paul On Wed, Mar 14,

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread J. Forster
In thinking about it a bit further, one might be able to take the 60 kHz received sine at some point in the receiver, full wave rectify and HP filter it (which doubles the frequency) then divide by two in a Flip-Flop and heavily filter the resultant. This is a hybrid solution... analog and

[time-nuts] WWVB New Modulation Scheme Compatibility

2012-03-14 Thread Sam Reaves
I guess that will mean that my bullet proof Tracor 599J will become a paper weight. I have a couple of units that were surplussed years ago from the USNO. Great receivers. Sam W3OHM ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread J. Forster
John Like your thought. I seem to remember costas loops work like that to recover the carrier. Paul, It recovers a bipolar signal to steer the local VCO as well as the data.. It also needs a quadratue hybrid at the VCO frequency (although it might be fairly easy to make a quadrature

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Jim Lux
On 3/14/12 8:07 PM, J. Forster wrote: John Like your thought. I seem to remember costas loops work like that to recover the carrier. Paul, It recovers a bipolar signal to steer the local VCO as well as the data.. It also needs a quadratue hybrid at the VCO frequency (although it might be

[time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Fuqua, Bill L
I know I am not one of the good-ole-boys here but I'd say go 100% SDR with your PC without an external A/D converter. Ok, how would you do this? You use under sampling. Many A/D converter systems use a sample and hold before the A/D converter. If you do the same before your sound card (your

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread J. Forster
On 3/14/12 8:07 PM, J. Forster wrote: John Like your thought. I seem to remember costas loops work like that to recover the carrier. Paul, It recovers a bipolar signal to steer the local VCO as well as the data.. It also needs a quadratue hybrid at the VCO frequency (although it might

Re: [time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

2012-03-14 Thread Charles P. Steinmetz
Bill wrote: [BPSK] leaves all the real Timenut type people, actually using the system for its intended purpose, out in the cold To be fair to NIST, there really aren't many people using WWVB as a source of laboratory-grade timing signals. As others have pointed out, it isn't accurate