[time-nuts] Recommendations for a newbie?
EWKehren at aol.com
EWKehren at aol.com
Sat Sep 8 15:06:37 UTC 2012
Not being a time nut but a frequency nut I lack some of the time test
equipment, but my partner on our joint development work makes up for it. So he
among other things recently looked at the 1 pps output of the Tbolt against
a Cesium. Using a HP 5352A with 500 samples over 50% are within +- 300 psec
and all within +-1 nsec. It makes an excellent GPS receiver and the 10 MHz
out make a good reference for counters, spectrum analyser and Signal
Generators. Good place to start, specially because of all the software
available. Any significant improvement on it should be well thought out and lower
A/V products are hard to find and seldom cheap.
Bert Kehren
On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 11:34 AM, Robert Liesenfeld <xunil at xunil.net> wrote:
> Hello-
>
> My name is Robert Liesenfeld, I discovered this mailing list via the
> fascinating website leapsecond.com. I'm an amateur radio operator (AK6L)
> and builder, and my interest in precise timekeeping initially stemmed
from
> simply wanting a very accurate clock source to which I could reference my
> test equipment (counter, spectrum analyzer, etc), but has expanded to a
> desire to perform timekeeping experiments. I have several questions; I
> looked for a FAQ but couldn't find one, so I hope it's alright to ask
here.
>
> I'm considering the purchase of a GPS receiver to serve as my workbench
> 10MHz source. Since learning about precise timekeeping, I've also become
> interested in some experiments, such as measuring the stability of the
> mains, the effect of the ionosphere on WWV/WWVH signals, and so on. So
far
> I've looked at various HP "Z-boxes" (Z3816, Z3815, Z3801, Z3805) and the
> Trimble Thunderbolt receiver. All of these seem to be in the $200-$500
> range I'm targeting, but it's not clear what the differences are. I've
> read the Thunderbolt is an older design with fewer channels, but I don't
> know if that's really a problem for my intended use.
>
> I've also seen many rubidium devices on eBay, most seem to have been
> removed from CDMA cell tower service. Does anyone here have any
experience
> with such devices, are the ex-cell-tower units any good? I have read
that
> a rubidium standard's short-term stability is not as good as a GPSDO, and
> that they're mainly used for holdover - is my understanding correct? My
> thought is to (eventually) use a rubidium device to stabilize a GPSDO
> should the receiver lose satellite signal.
>
> Thank you in advance for any advice!
>
> -Robert
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