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10/17/2004 Entry: "Austron 2100F data resolution"

I've now interfaced my Austron 2100F LORAN-C monitor's chart output to an HP 3421A data acquisition unit (basically, a 5 1/2 digit DVM with multiplexed inputs and a GPIB interface). The Austron puts out nominally 0 to 1 volt over either a 1 microsecond or 10 microsecond full-scale range. In actuality, the output voltage is more like 0.010 to 0.995 volts.

It also looks like the output is quantized in about 8mv steps -- here's an example. I'm average the 5 1/2 digits from the 3421A down to 1 millivolt (or 1 ns on the 1us range). The question is whether that's worthwhile, or whether I'd be better off averaging to 10mv.