[time-nuts] 60 KHz Receiver

paul swed paulswedb at gmail.com
Mon Oct 4 19:22:56 UTC 2010


Its not just diurnal shift it plain old jumps anytime.
Have been monitoring for periods from the eastcoast using both a Tracor 577
and 2  X HP vlf117 rcvrs. All kinds of stuff occur.

But then the older gents know all about that reality.
Some may speak up.
I like you want a second source but will say I was spoiled by loran. Maybe I
did not realize how much. Even though my first loran timing recvr was
homebrew in about 1989 as I recall.

How far are you from wwvb??

On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 3:11 PM, Perry Sandeen <sandeenpa at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>
> Gents,
>
> Thanks for all the input on the HP 3586B and the Austron Loran C receiver.
>  I’ll try to distill what’s been said.
>
> It appears that using the HP 3586B for a WWVB receiver isn’t a good idea
> unless I would use my HP 3336B or some other method to phase lock the BFO.
>  Since this seems to be way out of the KISS principle, I will go to plan B.
>
> I appreciate the clever circuit to convert the Austron to a phase detector
> but the effort required to get just a phase detector alone isn’t cost
> effective for me.
>
> Opening up the Austron shows that there is a great deal of space.  If the
> three Loran boards are gutted one of my Lucent Rubidium or Xtal standards
> will just fit in their place.  The power supply appears to be robust for the
> power required.  If not, there is space to add on.
>
> So to try to maximize the salvage of my purchase it looks like I should do
> the following.
>
> 1.  Gut the Loran boards and get a Lucent unit installed and working.
>
> 2.  Build a big honkin’ quality 60 KHz loop antenna.  I live in the country
> so I can put up any size I can afford.
>
> 3. Convert the Austron RF amp boards to 60 KHz if I can get a schematic and
> get lucky.  Does anyone have one or know where I could download it?
>
> 4.  If I don’t get lucky, build a TRF receiver in place of the Austron RF
> boards.  60 KHz crystals are cheap from Mouser.  Does anyone have experience
> building a ladder or similar crystal filter?
>
> 5.  After I get a good working 60 KHz signal, I‘ll divide it by six and
> apply it to a Talbot 10 KHz phase detector.  The Talbot circuit divides the
> 10 MHz reference oscillator to 10KHz using 74HC390 decade dividers.  It then
> provides a correction circuit to the reference oscillator from its phase
> detector.  Since the Talbot circuit on uses about six IC’s it will fit
> nicely in the rear chassis area.
>
> The goal, when completed, is to have a WWVB phase locked oscillator (yes I
> have to figure out what to do about diurnal shift) a reference frequency
> output and perhaps add a second Talbot phase detector circuit and meter for
> calibrating other oscillators.
>
> Yes, the GPS is more accurate more quickly but the issue is to have a
> second independent source for cross-checking.  Though highly unlikely, GPS
> satellites can be shot down, disabled or turned off or have their outputs
> modified at any time.
>
> Comments?
>
> Regards,
>
> Perrier
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.


More information about the time-nuts mailing list