[time-nuts] Abstract for consideration at 2016 New Mexico TechFest

Cash Olsen radio.kd5ssj at gmail.com
Tue Dec 29 09:51:54 EST 2015


Comments and critique are welcome and encouraged.  Input for the actual
paper from HAMS and / or time-nuts regarding current projects will be much
appreciated. Time-nuts members might wish share personal anecdotes of how
they got started being a time-nut, or got started working with WWVB, GPS,
or GPSDO. Some of the old timers may remember the Shera project and can
share comments about it.

I'd like to have inputs by this Thursday for final abstract submission
deadline on
Friday 1 January 2016. Presentation is in Albuquerque, NM on February 27,
2016.

DRAFT-DRAFT-DRAFT

A High Quality Time and Frequency Laboratory on a Budget
By S. Cash Olsen KD5SSJ

Following a brief retrospective look at time synchronization and frequency
syntonization by various methods, this paper will recall the seminal
publication of Brooks Shera W5OJM (SK) in QST magazine in 1998 which
introduced many amateurs to time and frequency measurement based on the
Global Positioning System (GPS). Low cost and high quality GNSS (Global
Navigational Satellite System, the USA DoD subset is GPS and will be used
generically in this paper) receivers have spawned many recent and current
projects by HAMS, world wide, to discipline both quartz and atomic
(rubidium) oscillators. With amateur projects as varied as weak signals
(such as QRSS, WSJT, EME) and microwave mountain topping to synthetic
aperture and steered arrays of antennas, frequency coordination and time
synchronization are of great importance to many Amateur Radio enthusiasts.
This paper will offer technical insight into the methods and techniques for
equipping a very high quality time and frequency laboratory on an amateur's
budget, approximately the cost of a used transceiver. Attention will be
given to the distinction between frequency (FLL) and phase (PLL) lock
loops, sawtooth correction of 1PPS signal from GPS, distribution of
reference oscillators and timing signals, Four Channel Dual Mixing methods,
Time Interval Counters, as well as, tips and tricks to maintain high
accuracy in measurements. Briefly, I will show how this subject speaks
directly to the charter of the Amateur Radio Service, Part 97.1
(b)(c)(d)(e).

DRAFT-DRAFT-DRAFT

-- 
S. Cash Olsen KD5SSJ
ARRL Technical Specialist


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