[time-nuts] Orbiting crystals

[Lux, James P]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lester Veenstra [mailto:m0ycm at veenstras.com] 
> Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 11:22 AM
> To: Lux, James P; lester at veenstras.com; 'Discussion of 
> precise timeand frequency measurement'
> Subject: RE: [time-nuts] Orbiting crystals
> 
> James:
>   I am afraid you lost me; " can you illuminate (NPI) us on 
> what the "experiment" is. Is this a leo satellite with an 
> L-Band downlink?
>      Les
> 
>  
> Lester B Veenstra  MØYCM K1YCM
> lester at veenstras.com
> m0ycm at veenstras.com
> k1ycm at veenstras.com
>  
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lux, James P [mailto:james.p.lux at jpl.nasa.gov] ...........
> 
> Isn¹t Inmarsat in a Clarke Orbit?  If the propagation path 
> for the solar eclipse shadow experiment runs through the 
> eclipse with the path from Clarke orbit to you, then there's 
> tons of signals available to look at............
> 
> 


I think the idea was to look for jumps in a crystal oscillator when it goes through the shadow of a total eclipse. My original suggestion was to look for LEO satellites which had conveniently monitorable oscillator frequencies. Someone else suggested using Inmarsat (because they have a L-band pilot tone), but I think the Inmarsat birds are in Clarke orbit, so you'd have to pick your ground station location (essentially in line with the sun and the bird) to do the test.