[time-nuts] Thunderbolt reception problems

[Magnus Danielson]

WarrenS wrote:
> Some of the disagreement has to do with the fact that Two similar topics, each with a different answer are being mixed together here.
> 
> Magnus's point:  
> 1) How to make the Tbolt the best that it can be? 
> Answer: Start with a good strong signal and a quiet environment.

Actually, that was not my point. My point was that the signal levels is 
lower than what is the normally recommended level and worse performance 
may be expected otherwise.

> Said's situation: 
> 2) How to make the Tbolt work the best that it can with a less than optimized existing setup.
> Answer: Lower the AMU to 1, rise the elevation to 15or20, increase the TC setting to 500 sec.
> (It will work better than when the factory defaults are use with the #1 case above)

I rather viewed it as, when things isn't as optimal... lower the level 
to get more sats to play with and thus a more stable situation.

These things isn't really in conflict... one is being aware that you 
left stable ground and the other is how to best handle that situation.

> Interesting enough, I have both cases with optimized setting running on my bench now and although the #1 is generally about 25% to 50% quieter, 
> It is not always so.  About 25% of the time the #2 case is as quiet or quieter.  So the less than perfect #2 case is not really a big deal to most. 
> There are much more important things that can be done if one likes to 'tweak & fiddle'.

Lowering the AMU limit would hopefully get sufficient sats in place, but 
it can be used to find a balance so that the effective constallation 
doesn't change, so weak potential dropouts can be cleared off while many 
reliable (altought maybe just a thad weak) remain in the solution. The 
AMU limit is a two-edged sword... at least.

I was trying to warn about the fact that you now accept lower power 
signals, and is not just a magical twist of knobs that makes everything 
good again. There is a benefit in lowering that limit given the 
situation, and I happilly agree with that.

> concerning:
>> that you may not get the performance of the spec-sheet. 
> Not a problem, cause they seem careful not to include any specs concerning this except for the 1e-12 per day average.

TvBs measurements could be another source... it's just so you know that 
beyond that point your milage may vary...

Cheers,
Magnus