I am having trouble following this thread. I assume we are trying to measure
phase noise, but of course the result includes the noise of the local
oscillator(s). Isn't the 3456A a voltmeter? I have one of those. In AC mode
it has a bandwidth of more than 100 kHz and measures true rms.
Someone please take the time and trouble to explain what is being done here.
At this point I am imagining a mixer and a local oscillator and some unknown
source. Quadrature? How do you accomplish that? Doesn't that require a 90
degree phase shift? With an analog phase shifter, or some more modern scheme?
A diagram would be helpful. I am interested in this partly because I also want
to measure phase noise (I can do it with a communications receiver or a
deviation meter, both of which I have), and partly because I feel as though I
am being left behind technologically speaking and want to keep up better than I
have.
Ever since data streams seem to take less bandwidth than that of the signals
whose information they contain, I have been thoroughly confused. My classic
textbooks don't have stuff like this. When someone talks about quadrature, it
looks to me as though they are waving hands in the air, saying some
incantations, and then come up with miracles. I know it works but I surely
would love to understand it.
Bob
On Saturday, October 1, 2016 4:24 PM, Bob Camp <kb...@n1k.org> wrote:
HI
DMTD = Dual Mixer Time Difference
Single Mixer = what is commonly used for most things.
If you have a single mixer setup, just put the two inputs in quadrature, attach
to a sound card and you have all you need for phase noise.
Bob
> On Oct 1, 2016, at 4:30 PM, Bob Stewart <b...@evoria.net> wrote:
>
> Hi Bob,
> I don't have a DMTD breadboarded up for testing. This was just a test of the
> new LPF using only a single Mini Circuits ZLW-1H DBM, and things kind of
> progressed from looking at the output of the LPF on the scope to "I wonder
> what I would see on the 3456A?" sort of thing. I'm running a
> holdover/recovery test on the code and hardware changes to get a reliable
> 1PPS from my GPSDO, so there is some very slow movement over the range of 0
> to 100ns.
>
> Bob
>
> From: Bob Camp <kb...@n1k.org>
> To: Bob Stewart <b...@evoria.net>; Discussion of precise time and frequency
> measurement <time-nuts@febo.com>
> Sent: Saturday, October 1, 2016 3:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring phase with an HP 3456A?
>
> Hi
>
> What is the beat note coming out of the DMTD?
>
> Put another way:
>
> DMTD involves three oscillators. Two are on roughly the same frequency and
> the third is
> offset from the other two. The difference frequency is typically something
> like 10 Hz.
> It does not *have* to be 10 Hz, but that is one way to do it.
>
> So, moving on using 10 Hz (which may be wrong):
>
> If you are at (say) 10 Hz, you get a 1x10^6 “error multiplication” on the
> output. One cycle
> at 10 MHz gives you one cycle at 10 Hz. The one cycle is 10% of 10 MHz, it’s
> 0.1 ppm
> of 10 MHz. You get a 10 degree phase change at 10 Hz for each 10 degree phase
> change
> at 10 MHz.
>
> The 10 Hz offset limits your phase noise process. The upper (or lower)
> sideband wraps around
> at 10 Hz and then starts dumping back into the other sideband’s data. You
> also need to have a
> signal processing chain that will tolerate the carrier being “in band”.
> Between the two … not
> such a great way to do it.
>
> It’s *much* easier to simply hook up a single mixer (half of what you have
> already) and look at
> the two sources in quadrature. Then the sidebands line up. The carrier is
> gone. The dynamic
> range can be *much* less.
>
> Bob
>
>
>> On Oct 1, 2016, at 2:32 PM, Bob Stewart <b...@evoria.net> wrote:
>>
>> I've been spending a small amount of my time looking into making a sort of
>> hybrid DMTD with a pair of DBMs up front feeding the stereo input to a sound
>> card. So, I got the 100KHz LPF back from Oshpark and hooked it up to my
>> scope for verification - an obvious step. Then I hooked it up to my 3456A
>> just for grins. (The two DBM inputs are 10MHz outputs from two different
>> GPSDOs). So, as I watch this, I think the obvious question: can this
>> measure phase angle better than the 5370A? I guess I need to send it
>> through a full 100ns of phase change to get a calibration value. So, who's
>> been down this road and what did you discover?
>> Bob
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>
>
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