[time-nuts] GPS interference and history...

Jim Lux jimlux at earthlink.net
Sat Jun 11 14:08:18 UTC 2011


On 6/10/11 7:01 PM, Hal Murray wrote:
>
> lists at rtty.us said:
>> There's an enormous amount of gear out there that gets timing off of GPS.
>
> That's an interesting claim.  Does anybody have any data on the usage of GPS
> for timing?
>
> I assume there is one in every cell tower and one in every 911 call center.
> Are there other large categories of users?

GPS timing antennas are sprouting like mushrooms in a lawn all over JPL. 
  (that's what they look like... you'll be walking around, and you'll 
notice that there's 2 or 3 new stalks sticking up with a little antenna 
on the top, and conduit running down the side of the building)

While we have masers and cesium sources at JPL, they're not distributed 
everywhere.  So, usually, the "easy" solution is to just get yourself a 
Symmetricom or Fluke box, have facilities install the antenna, and your 
lab is set.


>
> I think I saw one last week.  It was on a river level measuring station on
> the Sacramento River.  It was a small block building.  There was an antenna
> pointing up into the sky.  I assume there is a satellite up there.  There was
> also a small (~3 inch dia) hemisphere antenna. I assume it was GPS.  (They
> had power going into the building (no solar panels) so it should have been
> simple to get a phone line too.)
>
> I'm not sure why they need GPS at the recording house.  They know where it is
> so timing is the only use I can think of.  But they could also get that at
> the receiving end.  Millisecond accuracy isn't helpful.  Second level
> accuracy might be interesting if something breaks and you want to know when
> the wave got to downstream stations.  The risetime is probably over a second.


GPS is easy, that's why. It's under YOUR control. You spend a few 
thousand bucks (including installation labor) and you have something 
that works now and for the foreseeable future that you don't have to 
worry about a comm line dropping, or resetting a clock or any of a 
multitude of things.

Think about it.. what other totally off the shelf approach is there to 
get time to 1 second accuracy over a span of years and temperatures that 
does not require periodic "setting the clock"


>
>





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