[time-nuts] Adret 4101A, the DCF77 and a good antenna

[asmagal at fc.up.pt]

Hello all:

In Portugal,HBG is much fainter than DCF77. The distance is almost the same
and the power is much less (20 kW vs 50 kW). In the Porto region,  
DCF77 is stronger than all the others: MSF60, HBG75, etc. However,  
since we are almost at the range limit, sometimes the signal is not  
enough to provide a good tracking.
I am in Brazil till the end of November. When returning at home in Santo
Tirso, Portugal, I hope to put in this page a phase comparaison record of
DCF77 against Thunderbolt.

Best regards,
Antonio
CT1TE

Quoting Alan Melia <alan.melia at btinternet.com>:

> Marco, have you considered that HBG on 75.0kHz might be stronger with you
> from Switzerland??. In a lab or other complex quite often with off-air
> standards the problem is local noise. I have a friend in Porto who used to
> be able to lock to MSF when it was at Rugby a few years ago.......I havent
> asked since it moved north to Anthorn but I suspect he uses GPS now. If the
> noise is not a problem these receiver will often work well on a resonable
> wire antenna which is fairly easy to rig. Or see the PA0RDT MiniWhip design
> for a very simple active low frequency antenna. This is used all round the
> world for receiving weak amateur signals on 136kHz ....it is broadband up to
> about 500kHz, and down to 40kHz Japanese frequency standard transmissions.
> It is so small you can experiment to find the best quiet position. At LF the
> secret is the higher the better.
>
> Alan G3NYK
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marco A. Ferra" <maferra at gmx.com>
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:27 PM
> Subject: [time-nuts] Adret 4101A, the DCF77 and a good antenna
>
>
>> Hey time-nuts people,
>>
>> First of all, let me start by saying that I follow the time-nuts mailing
>> list for some time and it's a great source for trading experiences.
> Perhaps
>> you can help me on this one.
>>
>> We have in our laboratory, in Portugal (near Lisbon), an Adret 4101A
>> Frequency Receiver Standard, and we are trying to pickup the DCF77 signal
>> from Frankfurt, Germany.  I wasn't sure if the unit was working properly
> (it
>> seems quite old), but by injecting directly a 10mV 77,5 kHz sinusoidal
>> signal in the BNC antenna input I got the "level" and the "locked" green
>> leds to lit (it seems good news).
>>
>> However, I believe that the DCF77 arrives very weakly in Portugal, and I
>> thought on constructing a passive or active, but very simple antenna to
>> connect to the Adret 4101A.
>>
>> Do you have any experience on this equipment (we don't have the manual,
> just
>> a brochure with a few pages [1]), the DCF77 signal itself or an ideia for
> a
>> antenna that could be very sensitive to this signal?
>>
>> Kind regards, and thank you in advance,
>>
>> [1]
>>
> http://www.adret-electronique.fr/appareils_adret_metrologie/4101a/4101a.pdf
>>
>>
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