Frequency Measuring Test 2006

OK, I'll admit it: I screwed up this year. I got good signals on 160M and 80M, and a fair signal on 40 (more on the hardware below) but a stupid operator error caused me to reverse the math on all three bands. As a result, my measurements as submitted to ARRL are off by 75 to 110 Hz (I got the sidebands reversed, so the calculation error is double the delta between W1AW and my marker signal). However, when I redid the math, things don't look quite so bad, though based on preliminary data from W1AW several of us are 1 Hz off on 40M, so we'll need to see the final results to make sure of that number.

Without further ado, my results:

Band ARRL Measurement N8UR Measurement (Submitted) Error (Submitted) N8UR Measurement (Corrected) Error (Corrected)
160M 1 854 317.5 1 854 242.205 -75.295 Hz 1 854 317.795 -0.295 Hz -- --7
80M 3 587 117.5 3 587 022.157 -95.343 Hz 3 587 117.843 -0.343 Hz -- --7
40M 7 038 804.9 7 038 694.034 -110.866 Hz 7 038 805.966 -1.066 Hz -- --7

If you're interested, here's my ARRL Submission Letter (pdf).

This year I ran two HP 3586C selective voltmeters as receivers, one dedicated to 160M and the other to 80M. On 40M, I used my Icom IC-746 Pro with a PTS synthesizer for the marker.

Once again I used the 3586's tracking generator to provide the reference tone (at a nominal 1850Hz). The tracking signal was looped back to the input (via an attenuator and 2-way coupler). The external frequency reference was an HP 5065A rubidium frequency standard that was monitored against GPS at the time and was within 1x10-12.

Here are some screenshots of the signals as recorded by Baudline.