[time-nuts] Interesting application for really nutty timing

[jimlux]

On 6/2/20 3:24 PM, Tim Shoppa wrote:
> Hal, at one point shortly after their discovery in the late 60’s, Pulsars were considered as a possible primary frequency standard. Then atomic clocks became more amenable as lab standards.
> 
> As to time-nut measurements on pulsars, check this out: https://arxiv.org/abs/0909.1054
> 
> Millisecond and binary pulsars are the most stable astronomical standards of frequency. They can be applied to solving a number of problems in astronomy and time-keeping metrology including the search for a stochastic gravitational wave background in the early universe, testing general relativity, and establishing a new time-scale. The full exploration of pulsar properties requires that proper unbiased estimates of spin and orbital parameters of the pulsar be obtained. These estimates depend essentially on the random noise components present in pulsar timing residuals. The instrumental white noise has predictable statistical properties and makes no harm for interpretation of timing observations, while the astrophysical/geophysical low-frequency noise corrupts them, thus, reducing the quality of tests of general relativity and decreasing the stability of the pulsar time scale.
> 


http://neutronstar.joataman.net/amateur_challenges/

described as "A collection of information about amateur pulsar detection"

Vela is your best bet - 5 Jy @ 400 MHz - but you've got to be in the 
southern hemisphere.

B0329+54 is recommended for northern hemisphere. 1.5 Jy at 400 MHz, 0.2 
Jy at 1400 MHz.  The period is 0.714 seconds

1 Jy  = 1E-26 W/m2/Hz.

-230 dBm/m2/Hz

if you've got 10 MHz integration BW, then that helps by 1E7, so you're 
up to -160 dBm/m2