[time-nuts] Oncore Still alive

[Andy Talbot]

I have just recovered the old hardware that had been used for the GB3WES
5.29MHz beacon.   I built this beacon in 2004, or thereabouts, using a
Motorola Oncore to determine the timing for the transmission.   The beacon
ran flawlessly and was taken out of service a couple of years ago where the
hardware then sat in the beacon keeper's loft.
Firing it up, I fully expected the ancient GPS module (ICs on it are dated
1997 and 1998) to throw a wobbler and fail to lock up.  To my surprise it
was up and running with a valid fix showing on the NMEA output after about
30 seconds.
Which is appreciably better than all the Ublox modules I use when turned on
from cold.
The Oncore did hae a battery back up which had dropped to 1.5V - so perhaps
this was sufficient to keep the essential stuff alive.  But after being
turned off for two years ...?

Anyway, I was going to chuck it out, being so ancient, but may hang onto it
in case an old Oncore is of use to anyone for legacy maintenance perhaps.

What I haven't checked and must do so, is to see if the date/time are
valid, or 1024 weeks old.   The controller for the beacon only uses time
and GPS status on the NMEA stream, not the date.


Andy
www.g4jnt.com