[time-nuts] NTP apps on Windows question

[David J Taylor]

From: Chris Wilson

I have used Meinberg NTP and also Thinking Man's Dimension 4 as NTP
applications on Windows 7 64 bit OS's on 3 PC's. I use them to sync
the PC time for WSJT-X WSPR (a low power digital amateur radio mode)
which requires an accurate time on the PC's for successful decoding
and transmitting of digital signals.

Both Dimension 4 and Meinberg have occasionally not allowed proper
syncing with the WSPR application attempting to decode up to 4 seconds
late, despite my Trimble Thunderbolt and Lady Heather showing the PC
is synced to GPS time within less than a second, by eye.

I am now trying another NTP app by DL4YHF Wolfgang Buscher. My
questions are, is such an anomaly known and should I disable Windows
Internet Time synchronization when using another NTP app? I see no
mention of disabling this in any of the NTP application's notes... The
WSPR application, WSJT-X has very recently been released in a 64 bit
version, which is what I am using, and I have to wonder if the new
version has some minor bug as I find it hard to believe two well known
and used NTP apps are buggy.

Thanks.
===============================

Chris,

Just to confirm what others have said - basically use the reference NTP (as 
provided for Windows by Meinberg - many thanks) and /nothing/ else.  The 
default will disable Windows Time, but you are responsible for disabling 
other software which, as Martin explained, may be nothing like as good as 
NTP and will interfere with its working.

Here I have NTP running on Windows and Linux boxes, generally providing sub 
millisecond accuracy on Windows and better on Linux.  As time is critical to 
your application, consider having a time server locally, GPS controlled.  A 
Raspberry Pi and Chinese GPS module will do the job nicely, and you can sync 
all your PCs to that, with Internet sources as a fall-back.

  https://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/Raspberry-Pi-quickstart.html

  https://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/setup.html

73,
David GM8ARV
-- 
SatSignal Software - Quality software for you
Web: http://www.satsignal.eu
Email: david-taylor at blueyonder.co.uk
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