[time-nuts] HP Z3801A GPS questions + Satstat

[Walter Shawlee 2]

I had one of these systems with a power supply parked on a shelf for a 
two years, as I got a much newer Efratom system
with rubidium back up. I decided to run it to see if it was still working.

When I powered it up with a good external amplified antenna, it would 
not lock (front LED indicator stayed dark), even after 8 hours.
I found an old copy of Satstat and loaded it into my Toughbook, and 
hooked it to the serial output of the Z3801A,
I got communication after getting the right protocol set up (Satstat 
does not appear to save these settings which is unfortunate
as the defaults don't come close to working), but there was a large 
burst of traffic followed by an error message saying updates had been 
turned off.

What?  Well, I turned updates back on, and ran the various system 
commands, confirmed it was an HP Z3801A, and then did the full status 
dump, this time it worked, AND the front locked LED came On. The manual 
specifically says no communication is needed to make the system lock, so 
I am puzzled by this, and the system now shows 6 satellites active and 
everything is working (except the calendar date is wrong, which I 
understand is a roll-over problem).  I have multiple 10MHz outputs, and 
all seems good.

Is this start-up behavior normal?  Also, can it be updated to fix the 
wrong calendar data?  I am happy that all is working, but concerned it 
might stop again if II don't correctly understand what happened here.

Also, I could not find Satstat anywhere on the web, but was surprised to 
find it in one of my old archives (the symmetricom version), I am happy 
to email a copy to anybody that needs it. I think it is version 5.02.

All the best,
walter

-- 
Walter Shawlee 2
Sphere Research Corp. 3394 Sunnyside Rd.
West Kelowna, BC, V1Z 2V4 CANADA
Phone: +1 (250-769-1834 -:- http://www.sphere.bc.ca
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