[time-nuts] Inexpensive Alternative to a 5120A

[Bob Camp]

Hi


> On Oct 9, 2016, at 6:18 PM, Chris Albertson <albertson.chris at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Likely the lowest cost way to get into that is with a TV tuner USB
> dongle. They cost about $20.   People are able to get about 2.4 mega
> samples per second.  

Except that you need about 30 mega samples ...


> Not a lot of dynamic range but you can control
> that.    Use a mixer to move the signal  of interest into the range
> the tuner can handle.   Tuniers typically tune from about 20Mhz to
> 1Ghz or 2Ghz approximate.

You also need a very specific dual ADC architecture as described in the paper. Their 
hardware was > $1K and probably the only suitable system at that low a price.

No free lunch :)

Bob

> 
> 
> On Sun, Oct 9, 2016 at 12:05 AM, Paul Boven <p.boven at xs4all.nl> wrote:
>> Hi Randal,
>> 
>> On 2016-10-07 18:52:57, Cube Central wrote:
>>> 
>>> Is there an alternative that someone could point me to that would cost
>>> only a couple hundred rather than (what I expect) is a couple thousand?  How
>>> would I go about gathering the data needed for these nifty ADEV graphs I see
>>> floating about in here?
>> 
>> 
>> People have reported (also on this list) that some SDR (software defined
>> radio) hardware is quite capable of emulating a 5120/5125, and even going
>> beyond it in performance.
>> 
>> "Oscillator metrology with software defined radio, Sherman, J.A., Jördens,
>> R." - arXiv:1605.03505 [physics.ins-det]
>> https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.03505
>> 
>> Regards, Paul Boven.
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
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