[time-nuts] WWVB BPSK Receiver Project?

WB6BNQ wb6bnq at cox.net
Thu Mar 15 01:14:56 UTC 2012


Brooke,

In speaking with John Lowe of NIST (Group Leader for Time & Frequency service), he stated that the absolute time recovery of
their intended new modulation scheme is 10 milliseconds.  Nothing stellar there !

BUT you are right, all of us that have hp-117 type receivers are just out of luck.  John Lowe did say they are going to
produce a PIC (Microchip) project that will grab the data stream and reconstruct the carrier signal so that can then be fed
back into a hp-117 type receiver so it can still be used.  However, he did say that is a dream at the moment as they have
not really started to work on it.  He then said I could do it and they would consider my efforts.  While I had a number of
thoughts running though mind when he said that; I did hold my comments back.

I have to tell you, John Lowe sounded like he was drinking the Kool-Aid because I told him I was quite negative to the whole
idea and he went into a nonstop mode of telling me all the good things that were going to come about with this modulation
scheme.  The same kind of hype that occurred with the HDTV.  By the way, all those good things have nothing to do with
anything Time-nutty except for pissing us off, as it were.

His enthusiasm was aimed totally at new products.  Although he admitted it leaves all the real Timenut type people, actually
using the system for its intended purpose, out in the cold, he really did not seem to care.  Pointing out that a failure
with the GPS system left WWVB as the only alternate did not seem to matter either.

OH Well,

Bill....WB6BNQ


Brooke Clarke wrote:

> Hi John:
>
> They are going to maintain the existing AM modulation format so all the WWVB "Atomic Clocks" will still work.  The phase
> modulation is added on top of that.
>
> Yes, I expect my HP 117 may no longer work, but I'd much rather have the improved s/n and timing accuracy.
>
> Have Fun,
>
> Brooke Clarke
> http://www.PRC68.com
> http://www.end2partygovernment.com/Brooke4Congress.html
>
> J. Forster wrote:
> > All very nice, but if this change renders all existing receivers useless.
> > How does that improve things?
> >
> > All it does is wipe out all the existing phase tracking infrastructure.
> >
> > The only benefit is to the government who can reuse the WWVB transmitter
> > and frequency allocation. Everybody else will have to buy new stuff.
> >
> > Sounds a lot like HDTV fiasco. Making jobs (in China or Korea) by making
> > scrap.
> >
> > YMMV,
> >
> > -John
> >
> > ==============
> >
> >
> >> Dear Time-Nuts,
> >>
> >>
> >>> I sure would like a WWVB BPSK receiver for the new modulation. (..)
> >>>
> >>> I'm sure in time there will be plenty of low cost ICs designed to
> >>> receive the
> > [SNIP}
> >
> >
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> >
>
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