[time-nuts] Re: PCTEL Timing Antenna with integrated GPS Receiver?

[John Miller]

I take everything apart, so that much is a given - I just also like to have as much original documentation as I can, especially if there are any special initialization or configuration commands. Whatever I find I will document for anyone else who gets one of these in the future. Generally speaking once power and ground are found everything else more or less falls in place.

John

> On May 9, 2021, at 10:48 AM, paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Back to the problem for a minute.
> I have used some pctel antennas and they have been very good over the
> years. (Very good = works). The model number at least gives you a hint if
> RS 422 or 232. But if you can't find any further detail you are stuck with
> one option.
> Open it up and look. Most of these antennas can be opened and then
> re-assembled. The hardest part is ensuring a good seal.
> With respect to what's inside it should be reasonably apparent. Ground,
> Power to some linear regulator, maybe a RS422 chip or 232 driver. Expected
> leads for 422 nema and 1 pps so that would be 4 pins right there.
> So you would be able to get the unit going if your willing to dig in. Pun
> intended.
> Good luck and let us know what you find.
> Regards
> Paul
> WB8TSL
> 
> On Sun, May 9, 2021 at 8:11 AM Poul-Henning Kamp <phk at phk.freebsd.dk> wrote:
> 
>> --------
>> Mike Ingle writes:
>> 
>>> Hi, in reading between the lines, are you saying that in practice, the
>>> tempco of twisted pair is worse than the tempco of coax?
>> 
>> I seriously doubt it.  The change in coppers conductivity will not make
>> that kind of difference in propagation time until the cables are measured
>> in kilometers.
>> 
>> I suspect the tempco comes from the RS-422 linedriver chip in the antenna
>> or possibly from ceramic capacitors used to control its slew-rate.
>> 
>> --
>> Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
>> phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
>> FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
>> Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
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