[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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