[time-nuts] Question about SoundCard stability?

[David McClain]

Hi,

No you aren't missing anything... except that I *DON'T* see the 5 mHz  
drift that one should expect. Hence my contention that relying on  
interpolated frequencies from FFT peaks and their adjacent bins is  
bogus when the FFT bin size is as large or larger than the expected  
drift.

Somehow that seems like it violated the uncertainty principle in the  
first place. And now I'm seeing that the principle rules supreme.

I'm going to do another run, with a bin size about 1/4 the expected  
drift, to see if the reported "interpolated" peak frequencies really  
do show the drift one should expect.

Cheers,

Dr. David McClain
Chief Technical Officer
Refined Audiometrics Laboratory
4391 N. Camino Ferreo
Tucson, AZ  85750

email: dbm at refined-audiometrics.com
phone: 1.520.390.3995
web: http://refined-audiometrics.com



On Oct 12, 2010, at 18:25, Randall Prentice wrote:

> 1 Hz in 10Mhz is about the same ratio as 5mHz in 64Khz.
>
> This would make sense if the Clock for the A/D is divided off the same
> TXCO.
>
> Or am I missing something.
>
> The reason I jumped in,  in a recent frequency measuring contest the
> winner was using that interpolation for his results.
>
> Regards
> Randall ZL2RJP
> -----Original Message-----
> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts- 
> bounces at febo.com] On
> Behalf Of David McClain
> Sent: Wednesday, 13 October 2010 2:18 p.m.
> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Question about SoundCard stability?
>
> Ahh.. so... Now since my TCXO is drifting to and fro by 1-2 Hz over
> the period of 45 minutes, why don't I see similar drift in the 100 Hz
> audio signal, down around 5 mHz amplitude?
>
> This happens to be about the same size at the FFT bins. So I am led
> to conclude that "interpolated" peak frequencies are a bogus
> technique, and you can only truly count on variations on the order of
> the FFT cell size as being measurable...
>
> Dr. David McClain
> Chief Technical Officer
> Refined Audiometrics Laboratory
> 4391 N. Camino Ferreo
> Tucson, AZ  85750
>
> email: dbm at refined-audiometrics.com
> phone: 1.520.390.3995
> web: http://refined-audiometrics.com
>
>
>
> On Oct 12, 2010, at 17:57, Bob Camp wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Yes it is a reasonable expectation as long as you don't have a lot
>> of drafts. A good TCXO can get down to sub 0.1 ppb over that period.
>>
>> Bob
>>
>>
>> On Oct 12, 2010, at 8:21 PM, David McClain wrote:
>>
>>> Okay, perhaps I should rephrase the question... Is is reasonable
>>> to expect a TCXO to perform at 4e-9 over the FFT window period of
>>> about 87 sec? I can only imagine that the enormous (87 s)
>>> averaging period is making my measurements look so good.
>>>
>>> Dr. David McClain
>>> Chief Technical Officer
>>> Refined Audiometrics Laboratory
>>> 4391 N. Camino Ferreo
>>> Tucson, AZ  85750
>>>
>>> email: dbm at refined-audiometrics.com
>>> phone: 1.520.390.3995
>>> web: http://refined-audiometrics.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
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