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Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement

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Re: [time-nuts] time-nuts Digest, Vol 190, Issue 3

PS
Perry Sandeen
Sun, May 3, 2020 12:32 AM

GPSDO Questions
Learned Gentlemen,
First off, any GPSDO is better than none.
Now it's been stated on postings that some chicom GPSDO's are frequency locked (apparently not a good idea) and those that are phase locked. So how does one know what you are getting? I suspect asking the vendor would be pointless.
Bert posted a while back that his Tbolt occasionally had a hiccup that he was able to find when comparing it to a HP Rb and HP Cs.
So what can do other than live with these situations, which maybe in the long run, might for most of us, a minor unsolvable nuisance?
Also BTW are the Lucent GPSDO's a phase locked GPSDO since I have 2?
Regards,
Perrier

On Saturday, May 2, 2020, 9:00:11 AM PDT, time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com <time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com> wrote:  

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: GPSDO advice (Bob kb8tq)
  2. Re: GPSDO advice (Wes)
  3. Re: GPSDO advice (Richard Solomon)
  4. Re: GPSDO advice (Bill Notfaded)
  5. Re: power supplies (Poul-Henning Kamp)
  6. Re: power supplies (ed breya)
  7. Re: FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question (Matthias Welwarsky)
  8. Re: FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question (Didier Juges)
  9. Re: GPSDO advice (Bob kb8tq)
  10. Pre-averaging Phase Data (Simon Lewis)
  11. Re: GPSDO advice (Wes)
  12. Re: Pre-averaging Phase Data (Bob kb8tq)
  13. Re: Pre-averaging Phase Data (Poul-Henning Kamp)


Message: 1
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 22:29:29 -0400
From: Bob kb8tq kb8tq@n1k.org
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
    time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID: A6F3A633-827B-4841-8FCF-663A103927E0@n1k.org
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8

Hi

I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even
larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay.
Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends
sort of thing?.

The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever
is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought
5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and
the devices change again and then again.

There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just
different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago.
That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends
on the device and how picky you are.

This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom
Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing
for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10
years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again.

Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that
crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com wrote:

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury
GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced?

KR


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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 20:25:10 -0700
From: Wes wes@triconet.org
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID: 8c410a26-6463-1a4b-750f-bb6b72eb9564@triconet.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Hi Bob,

According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday :-)

I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth taking
the risk.

Wes

On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote:

Hi

I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even
larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay.
Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends
sort of thing?.

The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever
is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought
5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and
the devices change again and then again.

There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just
different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago.
That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends
on the device and how picky you are.

This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom
Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing
for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10
years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again.

Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that
crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com wrote:

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury
GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced?

KR


Message: 3
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 18:39:45 -0700
From: Richard Solomon dickw1ksz@gmail.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
    time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID:
    CAC5FBO-V2KgKQHFMG93spo7Joc4W41XtLcFrtJG=oj0VNZayLQ@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Why not just get a Trimble T-Bolt ?
Lots of them are still around.

73, Dick, W1KSZ

On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 6:26 PM Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury,
in
Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are
both
out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't
want to
sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this
kind of
money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to
go is
down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let

you

know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com

wrote:

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly

pursues

precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my
Jackson Labs Fury
GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the

lockdown

commenced?

KR


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and follow the instructions there.


Message: 4
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 20:37:06 -0700
From: Bill Notfaded notfaded1@gmail.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
    time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID:
    CADToqn3RY6LhoLYp04AGfJ6AeyjOGDhSinoX+a8A7+Ez2bRgkw@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Did you get a newer one with late 2019 at least on the front BG7TBL panel?
The one I got doesn't have the frequency offset bug and works really well.
It locks on multiple birds really quickly.  For the money it's hard to
beat.  I've been comparing it to my Thunderbolt E.  It obviously doesn't
provide the extra info you get with Trimble protocol (so no ocxo info in
Lady Heather) but I'd say it locks onto a lot more and faster than my
Trimble does even if I put it on GPS only constellation for fair playing
field.  I hate to say it but I'm not sure my Thunderbolt is really much
better.  You won't be sorry if it's a later BG7TBL GNSS model.  I've been
running mine on GPS and Galileo lately.

Bill

On Fri, May 1, 2020, 8:25 PM Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

Hi Bob,

According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday
:-)

I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth
taking
the risk.

Wes

On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote:

Hi

I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even
larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay.
Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends
sort of thing?.

The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years.

Whatever

is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff.

If you bought

5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past

that and

the devices change again and then again.

There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?.

Mostly just

different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20

years ago.

That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that

depends

on the device and how picky you are.

This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in

telecom

Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a

$35 listing

for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another

5 or 10

years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again.

Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s

not all that

crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop

Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they

are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly
didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a
credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this

kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I
have to go is down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll

let you know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly

pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with
my Jackson Labs Fury

GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the

lockdown commenced?

KR


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com
and follow the instructions there.


Message: 5
Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 06:45:55 +0000
From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" phk@phk.freebsd.dk
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
    time-nuts@lists.febo.com, jimlux jimlux@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] power supplies
Message-ID: 51396.1588401955@critter.freebsd.dk
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


In message 73bfcf33-8b29-38a6-d5a7-9192375d4f0e@earthlink.net, jimlux writes:

I suppose I can package a bunch of those up in a bigger box with banana
jacks or binding posts.

Use power-pole connectors, they are cheap and so much better.

I'm using a couple of fused West Mountain Radio distributors to
spread my 24VDC and 12VDC around the lab, highly recommended.

--
Poul-Henning Kamp      | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk@FreeBSD.ORG        | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer      | BSD since 4.3-tahoe   
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.


Message: 6
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 23:50:53 -0700
From: ed breya eb@telight.com
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] power supplies
Message-ID: af879375-2c73-d61e-a2bf-510e8debb7e8@telight.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Power supplies are indeed mostly commodity items, but absolutely
essential. I have a large collection of OEM open-frame units, in linear
and SMPS, and a small collection of commercial bench supplies, and some
home-made ones.

You can of course get a bunch of bench units and set them up for every
possible need, and with a dazzling array of readouts and adjustments.
What matters is what you mostly need to do, and what you want not to
happen. If you have to work on one thing at a time, with one to a few
voltages, it's pretty straightforward to set up and be ready to monitor
what's going on. If you have a bunch of things that use standard
supplies, that just need to run simultaneously, I think it's better to
just have simple supplies that put out a bunch of standard voltages for
them, with no fancy controls or measurement capability.

I've designed and built and used many SMPSs over the years, which is why
I prefer good old-school linear supplies. If you don't need high power
density or levels, you should go with linear, regardless of whether it's
a commercial bench unit, OEM, or slapped together yourself. It will
start out much cleaner, involving less grief when it comes to noise
control - almost a guaranteed issue in time-nut type situations. You
can't avoid SMPS noise entirely, since we're awash with their signals
all around us, from PCs and equipment and appliances and practically
everything else, but at least you can try to not add too much more right
in the middle of your work. Don't get me wrong - I love SMPSs and
related technology, and all the stuff they enable us to have and enjoy.
Life would be a lot different and less fun (but quieter) without them.

If you just need an assortment of supply voltages at modest currents,
one way is to put together an OEM linear supply like a standard +/-15V &
+5V one, with some three-terminal regulator circuits at other desired
voltages, and means to hook them up to the items. Refinements like
OVP/RVP etc can be added, but of course add some complexity.

One thing I always do, especially carefully for high-value or
one-of-a-kind items, is add intrinsic protection against any anticipated
powering faults like over-voltage and reverse polarity. No matter how
fancy your supplies are, it's still possible to make a mistake in hookup
or settings, and ruin the device being powered.

The same applies to the power supplies themselves. With a bench supply,
you don't necessarily know what would happen to it and its load, if you
say, accidentally short a +12V supply to the +5V. Would it damage the
supply and its load? If you fully know the characteristics and specs and
what's behind the front panel, you can predict the outcome. If you built
it yourself, you know that that you've (hopefully) anticipated the
possibility and provided for this event, or, the supply may not be
protected, but you've already added intrinsic protection to the load device.

So, it can get complicated, and as always, it depends...

Ed


Message: 7
Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 09:58:55 +0200
From: Matthias Welwarsky time-nuts@welwarsky.de
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com, John Bievenour john@bvnhr.net
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question
Message-ID: 4852208.V09MV4QL1C@linux-5fgm.suse
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

On Freitag, 1. Mai 2020 23:42:46 CEST John Bievenour wrote:

I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to
SMD), so please forgive the basic question.

I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency (pin 3
never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle to
fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000.

When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown, which
I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the
DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the right
hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by a
stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row.

I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of searching
and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum
Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down
the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out:

  1. is my identification correct?

Sounds about right, going by the images I found.

  1. is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the top
    makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ? 3) is the
    tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)?
  1. what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)?

I don't think you need to worry about that too much. The capacitor is probably
for filtering on the input of the regulator. For output filtering it's too
small. The datasheet for the LM2941 I found says at least 22?F is needed for
stable operation and ESR between 100mOhm 1 Ohm. So, the output filter cap must
be somewhere else.

Just make sure the size matches. The band on the top only marks the positive
side of the capacitor.

  1. for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and
    series just by decoding the writing on it?

Without knowing the exact part number and looking up the values in the data
sheet it's impossible to know these details. I usually compare  the top
markings against manufacturer data sheets until I find a close match and then
go from there.

Thank you very much in advance.

  • John

time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
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Message: 8
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 06:57:03 -0500
From: Didier Juges shalimr9@gmail.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
    time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question
Message-ID:
    CAMQqFunaDdZR_3AXThqHZyVXLy7c8gA2Qp8fO5CuX-ocQMAuCw@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Tantalum capacitors are known to occasionally short for no good reason.
Give them a reason and they'll be happy to oblige.
Things that can damage a tantalum cap in a hurry include excessive voltage,
reverse polarity, overheating (likely with hand soldering) and current
spikes.
If it were me, and assuming it is at the input of  a linear regulator, I
would put a ceramic multilayer capacitor in its place.
It will likely be much smaller (requiring a short jumper to match the
solder pads of the larger tantalum) but a lot more reliable, and you are
less likely to damage it by hand soldering.
(some linear regulators are unstable with a large ceramic capacitor on the
output without proper damping, but there is typically no issue at the input)

Didier KO4BB

On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 2:59 AM Matthias Welwarsky time-nuts@welwarsky.de
wrote:

On Freitag, 1. Mai 2020 23:42:46 CEST John Bievenour wrote:

I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to
SMD), so please forgive the basic question.

I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency

(pin 3

never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle

to

fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000.

When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown,

which

I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the
DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the

right

hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by

a

stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row.

I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of

searching

and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum
Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down
the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out:

  1. is my identification correct?

Sounds about right, going by the images I found.

  1. is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the

top

makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ? 3) is

the

tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)?

  1. what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)?

I don't think you need to worry about that too much. The capacitor is
probably
for filtering on the input of the regulator. For output filtering it's too
small. The datasheet for the LM2941 I found says at least 22?F is needed
for
stable operation and ESR between 100mOhm 1 Ohm. So, the output filter cap
must
be somewhere else.

Just make sure the size matches. The band on the top only marks the
positive
side of the capacitor.

  1. for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and
    series just by decoding the writing on it?

Without knowing the exact part number and looking up the values in the
data
sheet it's impossible to know these details. I usually compare  the top
markings against manufacturer data sheets until I find a close match and
then
go from there.

Thank you very much in advance.

  • John

time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
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follow

the instructions there.


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Message: 9
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 08:33:20 -0400
From: Bob kb8tq kb8tq@n1k.org
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
    time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID: CFD62CF1-B20E-4D0E-94C8-10C5CDFC6304@n1k.org
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8

Hi

Like pretty much all electronics GPSDO?s have been a ?designed in
the USA / built across the ocean? sort of thing for a long time. The
current crop of Trimble and Symmetrical salvage parts on eBay
are simply the latest wave. They are the ?next generation? of the parts
we all bought 10 or 15 years ago.  No better / no worse, just different.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 11:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

Hi Bob,

According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday :-)

I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth taking the risk.

Wes

On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote:

Hi

I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even
larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay.
Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends
sort of thing?.

The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever
is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought
5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and
the devices change again and then again.

There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just
different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago.
That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends
on the device and how picky you are.

This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom
Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing
for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10
years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again.

Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that
crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com wrote:

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury
GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced?

KR


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Message: 10
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 14:24:47 +0200
From: Simon Lewis siaclewis@gmail.com
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data
Message-ID:
    CALp6zztjqTJ-wrPTjbF06BUc_f3+tO6LVLuriPygZ6kW1hBoQA@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Hi all,

I have a fairly newbie question on averaging of phase data, prior to ADEV.

In a paper by Sherman and Jordens (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.03505.pdf) on
oscillator metrology using SDR (Ettus N210), for long term measurements (1
tau up) the group estimates an average phase to reduce the data volume.
They use both a novel lower-bound variance estimate, and what I assume was
a rectangular average of N samples per second (original data rate was
1Msamples/s). Both apparently provided similar results.

From what I've read/tried to understand, pre-averaging phase isn't

practically a good idea, considering the ADEV natively does this, and you
end up with a lower estimate than reality. They state that time interval
counters effectively do this for frequency measurements.

I know that one can do this with caveats, and in essence this is what MDEV
does (I believe?), but is it not more 'real' to just downsample the phase
data? That is, drop N-1 samples per second (not decimating which would
filter the higher order components), and then ADEV the downsampled data.
I'm sure I'm missing some understanding here!

Thanks,
Simon


Message: 11
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 06:39:29 -0700
From: Wes wes@triconet.org
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID: 6d7e095b-8413-6060-03d6-98747e67c1ce@triconet.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Good question and the answer is, I don't know.? The photo shows June 2018, but
who know whether that's representative.? Being antsy, I opted to buy from a
seller in the US with quick shipping, rather than waiting six weeks for one from
Asia.

On 5/1/2020 8:37 PM, Bill Notfaded wrote:

Did you get a newer one with late 2019 at least on the front BG7TBL panel?
The one I got doesn't have the frequency offset bug and works really well.
It locks on multiple birds really quickly.  For the money it's hard to
beat.  I've been comparing it to my Thunderbolt E.  It obviously doesn't
provide the extra info you get with Trimble protocol (so no ocxo info in
Lady Heather) but I'd say it locks onto a lot more and faster than my
Trimble does even if I put it on GPS only constellation for fair playing
field.  I hate to say it but I'm not sure my Thunderbolt is really much
better.  You won't be sorry if it's a later BG7TBL GNSS model.  I've been
running mine on GPS and Galileo lately.

Bill


Message: 12
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 11:14:56 -0400
From: Bob kb8tq kb8tq@n1k.org
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
    time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data
Message-ID: 4D24832F-8127-411A-8566-973AC6F5D473@n1k.org
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8

Hi

In general the way you go from 1 to 10 to 100 seconds is to decimate
( = throw away) the data to get a phase record at the tau you are after.
Any averaging that you do will filter out some noise. Since ADEV is a
measure of noise, getting rid of it is not a real good idea. You can indeed
make your results look very good by doing this. What those results
would actually represent ?. who knows ?.

Bob

On May 2, 2020, at 8:24 AM, Simon Lewis siaclewis@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I have a fairly newbie question on averaging of phase data, prior to ADEV.

In a paper by Sherman and Jordens (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.03505.pdf) on
oscillator metrology using SDR (Ettus N210), for long term measurements (1
tau up) the group estimates an average phase to reduce the data volume.
They use both a novel lower-bound variance estimate, and what I assume was
a rectangular average of N samples per second (original data rate was
1Msamples/s). Both apparently provided similar results.

From what I've read/tried to understand, pre-averaging phase isn't
practically a good idea, considering the ADEV natively does this, and you
end up with a lower estimate than reality. They state that time interval
counters effectively do this for frequency measurements.

I know that one can do this with caveats, and in essence this is what MDEV
does (I believe?), but is it not more 'real' to just downsample the phase
data? That is, drop N-1 samples per second (not decimating which would
filter the higher order components), and then ADEV the downsampled data.
I'm sure I'm missing some understanding here!

Thanks,
Simon


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and follow the instructions there.


Message: 13
Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 15:55:19 +0000
From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" phk@phk.freebsd.dk
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
    time-nuts@lists.febo.com, Bob kb8tq kb8tq@n1k.org
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data
Message-ID: 53514.1588434919@critter.freebsd.dk
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


In message 4D24832F-8127-411A-8566-973AC6F5D473@n1k.org, Bob kb8tq writes:

In general the way you go from 1 to 10 to 100 seconds is to decimate
( = throw away) the data to get a phase record at the tau you are after.

The problem with that, is that decimation may also throw away noise.

As a general scientific rule, if you measured, you use the measurements,
you cannot "pick & choose" amongst your measurements, not even if
you do it in a certifiably random way.

As I understand it, that is one of the minor problems the Modified
Allan Variance was (also) supposed to fix ?

--
Poul-Henning Kamp      | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk@FreeBSD.ORG        | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer      | BSD since 4.3-tahoe   
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.


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End of time-nuts Digest, Vol 190, Issue 3


GPSDO Questions Learned Gentlemen, First off, any GPSDO is better than none. Now it's been stated on postings that some chicom GPSDO's are frequency locked (apparently not a good idea) and those that are phase locked. So how does one know what you are getting? I suspect asking the vendor would be pointless. Bert posted a while back that his Tbolt occasionally had a hiccup that he was able to find when comparing it to a HP Rb and HP Cs. So what can do other than live with these situations, which maybe in the long run, might for most of us, a minor unsolvable nuisance? Also BTW are the Lucent GPSDO's a phase locked GPSDO since I have 2? Regards, Perrier On Saturday, May 2, 2020, 9:00:11 AM PDT, time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com <time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com> wrote: Send time-nuts mailing list submissions to     time-nuts@lists.febo.com To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit     http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to     time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com You can reach the person managing the list at     time-nuts-owner@lists.febo.com When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of time-nuts digest..." Today's Topics:   1. Re: GPSDO advice (Bob kb8tq)   2. Re: GPSDO advice (Wes)   3. Re: GPSDO advice (Richard Solomon)   4. Re: GPSDO advice (Bill Notfaded)   5. Re: power supplies (Poul-Henning Kamp)   6. Re: power supplies (ed breya)   7. Re: FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question (Matthias Welwarsky)   8. Re: FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question (Didier Juges)   9. Re: GPSDO advice (Bob kb8tq)   10. Pre-averaging Phase Data (Simon Lewis)   11. Re: GPSDO advice (Wes)   12. Re: Pre-averaging Phase Data (Bob kb8tq)   13. Re: Pre-averaging Phase Data (Poul-Henning Kamp) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 22:29:29 -0400 From: Bob kb8tq <kb8tq@n1k.org> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement     <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice Message-ID: <A6F3A633-827B-4841-8FCF-663A103927E0@n1k.org> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8 Hi I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay. Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends sort of thing?. The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought 5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and the devices change again and then again. There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago. That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends on the device and how picky you are. This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10 years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again. Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench. Bob > On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: > > An update on this: > > I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. > > The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card. > > As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down. > > Wes  N7WS > > On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: >> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back. >> >> Wes >> >> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: >>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <mark@alignedsolutions.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury >>>> GPSDO. >>> >>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced? >>> >>> KR >> > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > and follow the instructions there. ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 20:25:10 -0700 From: Wes <wes@triconet.org> To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice Message-ID: <8c410a26-6463-1a4b-750f-bb6b72eb9564@triconet.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Hi Bob, According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday :-) I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth taking the risk. Wes On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote: > Hi > > I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even > larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay. > Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends > sort of thing?. > > The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever > is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought > 5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and > the devices change again and then again. > > There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just > different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago. > That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends > on the device and how picky you are. > > This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom > Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing > for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10 > years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again. > > Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that > crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench. > > Bob > >> On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: >> >> An update on this: >> >> I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. >> >> The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card. >> >> As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down. >> >> Wes  N7WS >> >> On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: >>> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back. >>> >>> Wes >>> >>> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: >>>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <mark@alignedsolutions.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury >>>>> GPSDO. >>>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced? >>>> >>>> KR ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 18:39:45 -0700 From: Richard Solomon <dickw1ksz@gmail.com> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement     <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice Message-ID:     <CAC5FBO-V2KgKQHFMG93spo7Joc4W41XtLcFrtJG=oj0VNZayLQ@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Why not just get a Trimble T-Bolt ? Lots of them are still around. 73, Dick, W1KSZ On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 6:26 PM Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: > An update on this: > > I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, > in > Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. > > The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are > both > out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't > want to > sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card. > > As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this > kind of > money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to > go is > down. > > Wes  N7WS > > On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: > > Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let > you > > know if I hear back. > > > > Wes > > > > On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: > >>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <mark@alignedsolutions.com> > wrote: > >>> > >>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly > pursues > >>> precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my > >>> Jackson Labs Fury > >>> GPSDO. > >> > >> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the > lockdown > >> commenced? > >> > >> KR > > > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > and follow the instructions there. > ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 20:37:06 -0700 From: Bill Notfaded <notfaded1@gmail.com> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement     <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice Message-ID:     <CADToqn3RY6LhoLYp04AGfJ6AeyjOGDhSinoX+a8A7+Ez2bRgkw@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Did you get a newer one with late 2019 at least on the front BG7TBL panel? The one I got doesn't have the frequency offset bug and works really well. It locks on multiple birds really quickly.  For the money it's hard to beat.  I've been comparing it to my Thunderbolt E.  It obviously doesn't provide the extra info you get with Trimble protocol (so no ocxo info in Lady Heather) but I'd say it locks onto a lot more and faster than my Trimble does even if I put it on GPS only constellation for fair playing field.  I hate to say it but I'm not sure my Thunderbolt is really much better.  You won't be sorry if it's a later BG7TBL GNSS model.  I've been running mine on GPS and Galileo lately. Bill On Fri, May 1, 2020, 8:25 PM Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: > Hi Bob, > > According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday > :-) > > I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth > taking > the risk. > > Wes > > On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote: > > Hi > > > > I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even > > larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay. > > Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends > > sort of thing?. > > > > The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. > Whatever > > is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. > If you bought > > 5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past > that and > > the devices change again and then again. > > > > There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. > Mostly just > > different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 > years ago. > > That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that > depends > > on the device and how picky you are. > > > > This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in > telecom > > Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a > $35 listing > > for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another > 5 or 10 > > years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again. > > > > Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s > not all that > > crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench. > > > > Bob > > > >> On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: > >> > >> An update on this: > >> > >> I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop > Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. > >> > >> The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they > are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly > didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a > credit card. > >> > >> As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this > kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I > have to go is down. > >> > >> Wes  N7WS > >> > >> On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: > >>> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll > let you know if I hear back. > >>> > >>> Wes > >>> > >>> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: > >>>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer < > mark@alignedsolutions.com> wrote: > >>>>> > >>>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly > pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with > my Jackson Labs Fury > >>>>> GPSDO. > >>>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the > lockdown commenced? > >>>> > >>>> KR > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > and follow the instructions there. > ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 06:45:55 +0000 From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk@phk.freebsd.dk> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement     <time-nuts@lists.febo.com>, jimlux <jimlux@earthlink.net> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] power supplies Message-ID: <51396.1588401955@critter.freebsd.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" -------- In message <73bfcf33-8b29-38a6-d5a7-9192375d4f0e@earthlink.net>, jimlux writes: >I suppose I can package a bunch of those up in a bigger box with banana >jacks or binding posts. Use power-pole connectors, they are cheap and *so* much better. I'm using a couple of fused West Mountain Radio distributors to spread my 24VDC and 12VDC around the lab, highly recommended. -- Poul-Henning Kamp      | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 phk@FreeBSD.ORG        | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer      | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 23:50:53 -0700 From: ed breya <eb@telight.com> To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] power supplies Message-ID: <af879375-2c73-d61e-a2bf-510e8debb7e8@telight.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Power supplies are indeed mostly commodity items, but absolutely essential. I have a large collection of OEM open-frame units, in linear and SMPS, and a small collection of commercial bench supplies, and some home-made ones. You can of course get a bunch of bench units and set them up for every possible need, and with a dazzling array of readouts and adjustments. What matters is what you mostly need to do, and what you want not to happen. If you have to work on one thing at a time, with one to a few voltages, it's pretty straightforward to set up and be ready to monitor what's going on. If you have a bunch of things that use standard supplies, that just need to run simultaneously, I think it's better to just have simple supplies that put out a bunch of standard voltages for them, with no fancy controls or measurement capability. I've designed and built and used many SMPSs over the years, which is why I prefer good old-school linear supplies. If you don't need high power density or levels, you should go with linear, regardless of whether it's a commercial bench unit, OEM, or slapped together yourself. It will start out much cleaner, involving less grief when it comes to noise control - almost a guaranteed issue in time-nut type situations. You can't avoid SMPS noise entirely, since we're awash with their signals all around us, from PCs and equipment and appliances and practically everything else, but at least you can try to not add too much more right in the middle of your work. Don't get me wrong - I love SMPSs and related technology, and all the stuff they enable us to have and enjoy. Life would be a lot different and less fun (but quieter) without them. If you just need an assortment of supply voltages at modest currents, one way is to put together an OEM linear supply like a standard +/-15V & +5V one, with some three-terminal regulator circuits at other desired voltages, and means to hook them up to the items. Refinements like OVP/RVP etc can be added, but of course add some complexity. One thing I always do, especially carefully for high-value or one-of-a-kind items, is add intrinsic protection against any anticipated powering faults like over-voltage and reverse polarity. No matter how fancy your supplies are, it's still possible to make a mistake in hookup or settings, and ruin the device being powered. The same applies to the power supplies themselves. With a bench supply, you don't necessarily know what would happen to it and its load, if you say, accidentally short a +12V supply to the +5V. Would it damage the supply and its load? If you fully know the characteristics and specs and what's behind the front panel, you can predict the outcome. If you built it yourself, you know that that you've (hopefully) anticipated the possibility and provided for this event, or, the supply may not be protected, but you've already added intrinsic protection to the load device. So, it can get complicated, and as always, it depends... Ed ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 09:58:55 +0200 From: Matthias Welwarsky <time-nuts@welwarsky.de> To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com, John Bievenour <john@bvnhr.net> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question Message-ID: <4852208.V09MV4QL1C@linux-5fgm.suse> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" On Freitag, 1. Mai 2020 23:42:46 CEST John Bievenour wrote: > I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to > SMD), so please forgive the basic question. > > I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency (pin 3 > never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle to > fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000. > > When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown, which > I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the > DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the right > hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by a > stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row. > > I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of searching > and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum > Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down > the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out: > > 1) is my identification correct? Sounds about right, going by the images I found. > 2) is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the top > makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ? 3) is the > tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)? > 4) what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)? I don't think you need to worry about that too much. The capacitor is probably for filtering on the input of the regulator. For output filtering it's too small. The datasheet for the LM2941 I found says at least 22?F is needed for stable operation and ESR between 100mOhm 1 Ohm. So, the output filter cap must be somewhere else. Just make sure the size matches. The band on the top only marks the positive side of the capacitor. > 5) for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and > series just by decoding the writing on it? Without knowing the exact part number and looking up the values in the data sheet it's impossible to know these details. I usually compare  the top markings against manufacturer data sheets until I find a close match and then go from there. > > Thank you very much in advance. > - John > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com and follow > the instructions there. ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 06:57:03 -0500 From: Didier Juges <shalimr9@gmail.com> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement     <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question Message-ID:     <CAMQqFunaDdZR_3AXThqHZyVXLy7c8gA2Qp8fO5CuX-ocQMAuCw@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Tantalum capacitors are known to occasionally short for no good reason. Give them a reason and they'll be happy to oblige. Things that can damage a tantalum cap in a hurry include excessive voltage, reverse polarity, overheating (likely with hand soldering) and current spikes. If it were me, and assuming it is at the input of  a linear regulator, I would put a ceramic multilayer capacitor in its place. It will likely be much smaller (requiring a short jumper to match the solder pads of the larger tantalum) but a lot more reliable, and you are less likely to damage it by hand soldering. (some linear regulators are unstable with a large ceramic capacitor on the output without proper damping, but there is typically no issue at the input) Didier KO4BB On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 2:59 AM Matthias Welwarsky <time-nuts@welwarsky.de> wrote: > On Freitag, 1. Mai 2020 23:42:46 CEST John Bievenour wrote: > > I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to > > SMD), so please forgive the basic question. > > > > I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency > (pin 3 > > never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle > to > > fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000. > > > > When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown, > which > > I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the > > DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the > right > > hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by > a > > stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row. > > > > I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of > searching > > and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum > > Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down > > the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out: > > > > 1) is my identification correct? > > Sounds about right, going by the images I found. > > > 2) is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the > top > > makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ? 3) is > the > > tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)? > > > 4) what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)? > > I don't think you need to worry about that too much. The capacitor is > probably > for filtering on the input of the regulator. For output filtering it's too > small. The datasheet for the LM2941 I found says at least 22?F is needed > for > stable operation and ESR between 100mOhm 1 Ohm. So, the output filter cap > must > be somewhere else. > > Just make sure the size matches. The band on the top only marks the > positive > side of the capacitor. > > > 5) for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and > > series just by decoding the writing on it? > > Without knowing the exact part number and looking up the values in the > data > sheet it's impossible to know these details. I usually compare  the top > markings against manufacturer data sheets until I find a close match and > then > go from there. > > > > > Thank you very much in advance. > > - John > > _______________________________________________ > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > > To unsubscribe, go to > > http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com and > follow > > the instructions there. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > and follow the instructions there. > ------------------------------ Message: 9 Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 08:33:20 -0400 From: Bob kb8tq <kb8tq@n1k.org> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement     <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice Message-ID: <CFD62CF1-B20E-4D0E-94C8-10C5CDFC6304@n1k.org> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8 Hi Like pretty much all electronics GPSDO?s have been a ?designed in the USA / built across the ocean? sort of thing for a long time. The current crop of Trimble and Symmetrical salvage parts on eBay are simply the latest wave. They are the ?next generation? of the parts we all bought 10 or 15 years ago.  No better / no worse, just different. Bob > On May 1, 2020, at 11:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: > > Hi Bob, > > According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday :-) > > I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth taking the risk. > > Wes > > On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote: >> Hi >> >> I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even >> larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay. >> Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends >> sort of thing?. >> >> The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever >> is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought >> 5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and >> the devices change again and then again. >> >> There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just >> different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago. >> That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends >> on the device and how picky you are. >> >> This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom >> Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing >> for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10 >> years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again. >> >> Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that >> crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench. >> >> Bob >> >>> On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: >>> >>> An update on this: >>> >>> I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. >>> >>> The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card. >>> >>> As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down. >>> >>> Wes  N7WS >>> >>> On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: >>>> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back. >>>> >>>> Wes >>>> >>>> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: >>>>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <mark@alignedsolutions.com> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury >>>>>> GPSDO. >>>>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced? >>>>> >>>>> KR > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > and follow the instructions there. ------------------------------ Message: 10 Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 14:24:47 +0200 From: Simon Lewis <siaclewis@gmail.com> To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com Subject: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data Message-ID:     <CALp6zztjqTJ-wrPTjbF06BUc_f3+tO6LVLuriPygZ6kW1hBoQA@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Hi all, I have a fairly newbie question on averaging of phase data, prior to ADEV. In a paper by Sherman and Jordens (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.03505.pdf) on oscillator metrology using SDR (Ettus N210), for long term measurements (1 tau up) the group estimates an average phase to reduce the data volume. They use both a novel lower-bound variance estimate, and what I assume was a rectangular average of N samples per second (original data rate was 1Msamples/s). Both apparently provided similar results. >From what I've read/tried to understand, pre-averaging phase isn't practically a good idea, considering the ADEV natively does this, and you end up with a lower estimate than reality. They state that time interval counters effectively do this for frequency measurements. I know that one can do this with caveats, and in essence this is what MDEV does (I believe?), but is it not more 'real' to just downsample the phase data? That is, drop N-1 samples per second (not decimating which would filter the higher order components), and then ADEV the downsampled data. I'm sure I'm missing some understanding here! Thanks, Simon ------------------------------ Message: 11 Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 06:39:29 -0700 From: Wes <wes@triconet.org> To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice Message-ID: <6d7e095b-8413-6060-03d6-98747e67c1ce@triconet.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Good question and the answer is, I don't know.? The photo shows June 2018, but who know whether that's representative.? Being antsy, I opted to buy from a seller in the US with quick shipping, rather than waiting six weeks for one from Asia. On 5/1/2020 8:37 PM, Bill Notfaded wrote: > Did you get a newer one with late 2019 at least on the front BG7TBL panel? > The one I got doesn't have the frequency offset bug and works really well. > It locks on multiple birds really quickly.  For the money it's hard to > beat.  I've been comparing it to my Thunderbolt E.  It obviously doesn't > provide the extra info you get with Trimble protocol (so no ocxo info in > Lady Heather) but I'd say it locks onto a lot more and faster than my > Trimble does even if I put it on GPS only constellation for fair playing > field.  I hate to say it but I'm not sure my Thunderbolt is really much > better.  You won't be sorry if it's a later BG7TBL GNSS model.  I've been > running mine on GPS and Galileo lately. > > Bill ------------------------------ Message: 12 Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 11:14:56 -0400 From: Bob kb8tq <kb8tq@n1k.org> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement     <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data Message-ID: <4D24832F-8127-411A-8566-973AC6F5D473@n1k.org> Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8 Hi In general the way you go from 1 to 10 to 100 seconds is to decimate ( = throw away) the data to get a phase record at the tau you are after. Any averaging that you do will filter out some noise. Since ADEV is a measure of noise, getting rid of it is not a real good idea. You can indeed make your results look *very* good by doing this. What those results would actually represent ?. who knows ?. Bob > On May 2, 2020, at 8:24 AM, Simon Lewis <siaclewis@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi all, > > I have a fairly newbie question on averaging of phase data, prior to ADEV. > > In a paper by Sherman and Jordens (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.03505.pdf) on > oscillator metrology using SDR (Ettus N210), for long term measurements (1 > tau up) the group estimates an average phase to reduce the data volume. > They use both a novel lower-bound variance estimate, and what I assume was > a rectangular average of N samples per second (original data rate was > 1Msamples/s). Both apparently provided similar results. > > From what I've read/tried to understand, pre-averaging phase isn't > practically a good idea, considering the ADEV natively does this, and you > end up with a lower estimate than reality. They state that time interval > counters effectively do this for frequency measurements. > > I know that one can do this with caveats, and in essence this is what MDEV > does (I believe?), but is it not more 'real' to just downsample the phase > data? That is, drop N-1 samples per second (not decimating which would > filter the higher order components), and then ADEV the downsampled data. > I'm sure I'm missing some understanding here! > > Thanks, > Simon > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > and follow the instructions there. ------------------------------ Message: 13 Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 15:55:19 +0000 From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk@phk.freebsd.dk> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement     <time-nuts@lists.febo.com>, Bob kb8tq <kb8tq@n1k.org> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data Message-ID: <53514.1588434919@critter.freebsd.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" -------- In message <4D24832F-8127-411A-8566-973AC6F5D473@n1k.org>, Bob kb8tq writes: >In general the way you go from 1 to 10 to 100 seconds is to decimate >( = throw away) the data to get a phase record at the tau you are after. The problem with that, is that decimation may _also_ throw away noise. As a general scientific rule, if you measured, you use the measurements, you cannot "pick & choose" amongst your measurements, not even if you do it in a certifiably random way. As I understand it, that is one of the minor problems the Modified Allan Variance was (also) supposed to fix ? -- Poul-Henning Kamp      | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 phk@FreeBSD.ORG        | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer      | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@lists.febo.com http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com ------------------------------ End of time-nuts Digest, Vol 190, Issue 3 *****************************************
BK
Bob kb8tq
Sun, May 3, 2020 2:06 PM

Hi

On May 2, 2020, at 8:32 PM, Perry Sandeen via time-nuts time-nuts@lists.febo.com wrote:

GPSDO Questions
Learned Gentlemen,
First off, any GPSDO is better than none.
Now it's been stated on postings that some chicom GPSDO's are frequency locked (apparently not a good idea) and those that are phase locked. So how does one know what you are getting? I suspect asking the vendor would be pointless.

You can still buy “OEM” GPSDO’s on eBay cheap, none of these are over $100:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/trueposition-gpsdo-gps-module-1pps-10mhz/293561908484?hash=item4459a73d04:g:G10AAOSwPp9ekBSh https://www.ebay.com/itm/trueposition-gpsdo-gps-module-1pps-10mhz/293561908484?hash=item4459a73d04:g:G10AAOSwPp9ekBSh

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-73090-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator/312280039293?hash=item48b5573f7d:g:3B8AAOSw~LBbqfIr https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-73090-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator/312280039293?hash=item48b5573f7d:g:3B8AAOSw~LBbqfIr

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Symmetricom-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-w-shield-GT-8031/312280033244?hash=item48b55727dc:g:nloAAOSwKDpbqfBh https://www.ebay.com/itm/Symmetricom-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-w-shield-GT-8031/312280033244?hash=item48b55727dc:g:nloAAOSwKDpbqfBh

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1x-RCGD-M-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-w-GT-8031/312306276819?hash=item48b6e799d3:g:veEAAOSwaalb5CQi https://www.ebay.com/itm/1x-RCGD-M-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-w-GT-8031/312306276819?hash=item48b6e799d3:g:veEAAOSwaalb5CQi

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SAMSUNG-STP-2878LF-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-w-ublox-LEA-6T/312279920851?epid=7025110823&hash=item48b55570d3:g:LVQAAOSwQRVbm0O6 https://www.ebay.com/itm/SAMSUNG-STP-2878LF-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-w-ublox-LEA-6T/312279920851?epid=7025110823&hash=item48b55570d3:g:LVQAAOSwQRVbm0O6

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-EPSON-TOYOCOM-TCO-6920N-10MHz-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-GPSDO/254344933612?hash=item3b3823b0ec:g:BPYAAOSw9-tdaH8M https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-EPSON-TOYOCOM-TCO-6920N-10MHz-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-GPSDO/254344933612?hash=item3b3823b0ec:g:BPYAAOSw9-tdaH8M

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-10MHz-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-GPSDO-GPS/263985049514?hash=item3d76bc2faa:g:CrwAAOSwymBbaPmA https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-10MHz-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-GPSDO-GPS/263985049514?hash=item3d76bc2faa:g:CrwAAOSwymBbaPmA

None of those were built in a basement workshop. They all lived a life in some sort of telecom gear made by a major outfit.

If you want the same OEM boards put into a package the price is just over $100. Yes the packaging was done by a part timer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-SAMSUNG-GPS-10MHz-X2-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna-ublox-LEA-6T-1-001/264520662327?hash=item3d96a8fd37:g:dbsAAOSw1kxdvvcY https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-SAMSUNG-GPS-10MHz-X2-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna-ublox-LEA-6T-1-001/264520662327?hash=item3d96a8fd37:g:dbsAAOSw1kxdvvcY

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-GPS-Receiver-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-sine-and-square-wave/252162780444?hash=item3ab612ad1c:g:PqcAAOSww-Baabwy https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-GPS-Receiver-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-sine-and-square-wave/252162780444?hash=item3ab612ad1c:g:PqcAAOSww-Baabwy

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Mhz-GPSDO-OSCILLOQUARTZ-OSA-OEM-GPS-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-STAR-GPS-Clock/262861459973?hash=item3d33c39205:g:sbYAAOSwh2xYAjrp https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Mhz-GPSDO-OSCILLOQUARTZ-OSA-OEM-GPS-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-STAR-GPS-Clock/262861459973?hash=item3d33c39205:g:sbYAAOSwh2xYAjrp

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-Symmetricom-Inside-GPS-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna/263458624856?hash=item3d575b9558:g:bk8AAOSw9vlaael4 https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-Symmetricom-Inside-GPS-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna/263458624856?hash=item3d575b9558:g:bk8AAOSw9vlaael4

No that’s not an exhaustive list in either category. There are hundreds of listings you could sort through.

If anything, there is more variety out there today in GPSDO’s than there was 10 years ago. None of this is to say that the OEM boards
are “best” in any way. They are the same sort of thing we have been buying for decades now. They are at the same sort of prices and
have the same sort of heritage.

Bert posted a while back that his Tbolt occasionally had a hiccup that he was able to find when comparing it to a HP Rb and HP Cs.
So what can do other than live with these situations, which maybe in the long run, might for most of us, a minor unsolvable nuisance?
Also BTW are the Lucent GPSDO's a phase locked GPSDO since I have 2?

You likely will not find any OEM GPSDO that does frequency lock. The applications they all go inare time sensitive. ( = the tight spec
is on timing / holdover ). That pretty much forces them to do phase lock. Again, usual disclaimer, that should in no way imply that
phase lock is better, just that it’s what they use.

Bob

Regards,
Perrier

On Saturday, May 2, 2020, 9:00:11 AM PDT, time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com <time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com> wrote:  

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: GPSDO advice (Bob kb8tq)
  2. Re: GPSDO advice (Wes)
  3. Re: GPSDO advice (Richard Solomon)
  4. Re: GPSDO advice (Bill Notfaded)
  5. Re: power supplies (Poul-Henning Kamp)
  6. Re: power supplies (ed breya)
  7. Re: FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question (Matthias Welwarsky)
  8. Re: FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question (Didier Juges)
  9. Re: GPSDO advice (Bob kb8tq)
  10. Pre-averaging Phase Data (Simon Lewis)
  11. Re: GPSDO advice (Wes)
  12. Re: Pre-averaging Phase Data (Bob kb8tq)
  13. Re: Pre-averaging Phase Data (Poul-Henning Kamp)

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 22:29:29 -0400
From: Bob kb8tq kb8tq@n1k.org
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID: A6F3A633-827B-4841-8FCF-663A103927E0@n1k.org
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8

Hi

I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even
larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay.
Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends
sort of thing?.

The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever
is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought
5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and
the devices change again and then again.

There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just
different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago.
That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends
on the device and how picky you are.

This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom
Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing
for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10
years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again.

Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that
crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com wrote:

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury
GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced?

KR


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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 20:25:10 -0700
From: Wes wes@triconet.org
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID: 8c410a26-6463-1a4b-750f-bb6b72eb9564@triconet.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Hi Bob,

According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday :-)

I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth taking
the risk.

Wes

On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote:

Hi

I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even
larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay.
Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends
sort of thing?.

The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever
is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought
5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and
the devices change again and then again.

There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just
different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago.
That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends
on the device and how picky you are.

This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom
Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing
for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10
years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again.

Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that
crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com wrote:

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury
GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced?

KR


Message: 3
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 18:39:45 -0700
From: Richard Solomon dickw1ksz@gmail.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID:
CAC5FBO-V2KgKQHFMG93spo7Joc4W41XtLcFrtJG=oj0VNZayLQ@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Why not just get a Trimble T-Bolt ?
Lots of them are still around.

73, Dick, W1KSZ

On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 6:26 PM Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury,
in
Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are
both
out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't
want to
sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this
kind of
money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to
go is
down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let

you

know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com

wrote:

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly

pursues

precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my
Jackson Labs Fury
GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the

lockdown

commenced?

KR


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
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http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com
and follow the instructions there.


Message: 4
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 20:37:06 -0700
From: Bill Notfaded notfaded1@gmail.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID:
CADToqn3RY6LhoLYp04AGfJ6AeyjOGDhSinoX+a8A7+Ez2bRgkw@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Did you get a newer one with late 2019 at least on the front BG7TBL panel?
The one I got doesn't have the frequency offset bug and works really well.
It locks on multiple birds really quickly.  For the money it's hard to
beat.  I've been comparing it to my Thunderbolt E.  It obviously doesn't
provide the extra info you get with Trimble protocol (so no ocxo info in
Lady Heather) but I'd say it locks onto a lot more and faster than my
Trimble does even if I put it on GPS only constellation for fair playing
field.  I hate to say it but I'm not sure my Thunderbolt is really much
better.  You won't be sorry if it's a later BG7TBL GNSS model.  I've been
running mine on GPS and Galileo lately.

Bill

On Fri, May 1, 2020, 8:25 PM Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

Hi Bob,

According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday
:-)

I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth
taking
the risk.

Wes

On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote:

Hi

I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even
larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay.
Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends
sort of thing?.

The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years.

Whatever

is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff.

If you bought

5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past

that and

the devices change again and then again.

There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?.

Mostly just

different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20

years ago.

That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that

depends

on the device and how picky you are.

This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in

telecom

Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a

$35 listing

for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another

5 or 10

years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again.

Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s

not all that

crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop

Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they

are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly
didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a
credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this

kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I
have to go is down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll

let you know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly

pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with
my Jackson Labs Fury

GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the

lockdown commenced?

KR


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
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http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com
and follow the instructions there.


Message: 5
Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 06:45:55 +0000
From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" phk@phk.freebsd.dk
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@lists.febo.com, jimlux jimlux@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] power supplies
Message-ID: 51396.1588401955@critter.freebsd.dk
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


In message 73bfcf33-8b29-38a6-d5a7-9192375d4f0e@earthlink.net, jimlux writes:

I suppose I can package a bunch of those up in a bigger box with banana
jacks or binding posts.

Use power-pole connectors, they are cheap and so much better.

I'm using a couple of fused West Mountain Radio distributors to
spread my 24VDC and 12VDC around the lab, highly recommended.

--
Poul-Henning Kamp      | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk@FreeBSD.ORG        | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer      | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.


Message: 6
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 23:50:53 -0700
From: ed breya eb@telight.com
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] power supplies
Message-ID: af879375-2c73-d61e-a2bf-510e8debb7e8@telight.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Power supplies are indeed mostly commodity items, but absolutely
essential. I have a large collection of OEM open-frame units, in linear
and SMPS, and a small collection of commercial bench supplies, and some
home-made ones.

You can of course get a bunch of bench units and set them up for every
possible need, and with a dazzling array of readouts and adjustments.
What matters is what you mostly need to do, and what you want not to
happen. If you have to work on one thing at a time, with one to a few
voltages, it's pretty straightforward to set up and be ready to monitor
what's going on. If you have a bunch of things that use standard
supplies, that just need to run simultaneously, I think it's better to
just have simple supplies that put out a bunch of standard voltages for
them, with no fancy controls or measurement capability.

I've designed and built and used many SMPSs over the years, which is why
I prefer good old-school linear supplies. If you don't need high power
density or levels, you should go with linear, regardless of whether it's
a commercial bench unit, OEM, or slapped together yourself. It will
start out much cleaner, involving less grief when it comes to noise
control - almost a guaranteed issue in time-nut type situations. You
can't avoid SMPS noise entirely, since we're awash with their signals
all around us, from PCs and equipment and appliances and practically
everything else, but at least you can try to not add too much more right
in the middle of your work. Don't get me wrong - I love SMPSs and
related technology, and all the stuff they enable us to have and enjoy.
Life would be a lot different and less fun (but quieter) without them.

If you just need an assortment of supply voltages at modest currents,
one way is to put together an OEM linear supply like a standard +/-15V &
+5V one, with some three-terminal regulator circuits at other desired
voltages, and means to hook them up to the items. Refinements like
OVP/RVP etc can be added, but of course add some complexity.

One thing I always do, especially carefully for high-value or
one-of-a-kind items, is add intrinsic protection against any anticipated
powering faults like over-voltage and reverse polarity. No matter how
fancy your supplies are, it's still possible to make a mistake in hookup
or settings, and ruin the device being powered.

The same applies to the power supplies themselves. With a bench supply,
you don't necessarily know what would happen to it and its load, if you
say, accidentally short a +12V supply to the +5V. Would it damage the
supply and its load? If you fully know the characteristics and specs and
what's behind the front panel, you can predict the outcome. If you built
it yourself, you know that that you've (hopefully) anticipated the
possibility and provided for this event, or, the supply may not be
protected, but you've already added intrinsic protection to the load device.

So, it can get complicated, and as always, it depends...

Ed


Message: 7
Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 09:58:55 +0200
From: Matthias Welwarsky time-nuts@welwarsky.de
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com, John Bievenour john@bvnhr.net
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question
Message-ID: 4852208.V09MV4QL1C@linux-5fgm.suse
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

On Freitag, 1. Mai 2020 23:42:46 CEST John Bievenour wrote:

I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to
SMD), so please forgive the basic question.

I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency (pin 3
never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle to
fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000.

When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown, which
I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the
DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the right
hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by a
stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row.

I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of searching
and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum
Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down
the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out:

  1. is my identification correct?

Sounds about right, going by the images I found.

  1. is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the top
    makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ? 3) is the
    tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)?
  1. what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)?

I don't think you need to worry about that too much. The capacitor is probably
for filtering on the input of the regulator. For output filtering it's too
small. The datasheet for the LM2941 I found says at least 22?F is needed for
stable operation and ESR between 100mOhm 1 Ohm. So, the output filter cap must
be somewhere else.

Just make sure the size matches. The band on the top only marks the positive
side of the capacitor.

  1. for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and
    series just by decoding the writing on it?

Without knowing the exact part number and looking up the values in the data
sheet it's impossible to know these details. I usually compare  the top
markings against manufacturer data sheets until I find a close match and then
go from there.

Thank you very much in advance.

  • John

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Message: 8
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 06:57:03 -0500
From: Didier Juges shalimr9@gmail.com
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question
Message-ID:
CAMQqFunaDdZR_3AXThqHZyVXLy7c8gA2Qp8fO5CuX-ocQMAuCw@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Tantalum capacitors are known to occasionally short for no good reason.
Give them a reason and they'll be happy to oblige.
Things that can damage a tantalum cap in a hurry include excessive voltage,
reverse polarity, overheating (likely with hand soldering) and current
spikes.
If it were me, and assuming it is at the input of  a linear regulator, I
would put a ceramic multilayer capacitor in its place.
It will likely be much smaller (requiring a short jumper to match the
solder pads of the larger tantalum) but a lot more reliable, and you are
less likely to damage it by hand soldering.
(some linear regulators are unstable with a large ceramic capacitor on the
output without proper damping, but there is typically no issue at the input)

Didier KO4BB

On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 2:59 AM Matthias Welwarsky time-nuts@welwarsky.de
wrote:

On Freitag, 1. Mai 2020 23:42:46 CEST John Bievenour wrote:

I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to
SMD), so please forgive the basic question.

I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency

(pin 3

never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle

to

fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000.

When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown,

which

I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the
DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the

right

hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by

a

stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row.

I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of

searching

and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum
Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down
the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out:

  1. is my identification correct?

Sounds about right, going by the images I found.

  1. is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the

top

makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ? 3) is

the

tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)?

  1. what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)?

I don't think you need to worry about that too much. The capacitor is
probably
for filtering on the input of the regulator. For output filtering it's too
small. The datasheet for the LM2941 I found says at least 22?F is needed
for
stable operation and ESR between 100mOhm 1 Ohm. So, the output filter cap
must
be somewhere else.

Just make sure the size matches. The band on the top only marks the
positive
side of the capacitor.

  1. for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and
    series just by decoding the writing on it?

Without knowing the exact part number and looking up the values in the
data
sheet it's impossible to know these details. I usually compare  the top
markings against manufacturer data sheets until I find a close match and
then
go from there.

Thank you very much in advance.

  • John

time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
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follow

the instructions there.


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Message: 9
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 08:33:20 -0400
From: Bob kb8tq kb8tq@n1k.org
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID: CFD62CF1-B20E-4D0E-94C8-10C5CDFC6304@n1k.org
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8

Hi

Like pretty much all electronics GPSDO?s have been a ?designed in
the USA / built across the ocean? sort of thing for a long time. The
current crop of Trimble and Symmetrical salvage parts on eBay
are simply the latest wave. They are the ?next generation? of the parts
we all bought 10 or 15 years ago.  No better / no worse, just different.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 11:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

Hi Bob,

According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday :-)

I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth taking the risk.

Wes

On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote:

Hi

I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even
larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay.
Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends
sort of thing?.

The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever
is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought
5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and
the devices change again and then again.

There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just
different.  The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago.
That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends
on the device and how picky you are.

This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom
Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing
for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10
years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again.

Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that
crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench.

Bob

On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes wes@triconet.org wrote:

An update on this:

I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them.

The good news is that they both were responsive.  The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB.  Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card.

As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down.

Wes  N7WS

On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote:

Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A.  I'll let you know if I hear back.

Wes

On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote:

On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer mark@alignedsolutions.com wrote:

Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury
GPSDO.

Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced?

KR


time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com
and follow the instructions there.


Message: 10
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 14:24:47 +0200
From: Simon Lewis siaclewis@gmail.com
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data
Message-ID:
CALp6zztjqTJ-wrPTjbF06BUc_f3+tO6LVLuriPygZ6kW1hBoQA@mail.gmail.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Hi all,

I have a fairly newbie question on averaging of phase data, prior to ADEV.

In a paper by Sherman and Jordens (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.03505.pdf) on
oscillator metrology using SDR (Ettus N210), for long term measurements (1
tau up) the group estimates an average phase to reduce the data volume.
They use both a novel lower-bound variance estimate, and what I assume was
a rectangular average of N samples per second (original data rate was
1Msamples/s). Both apparently provided similar results.

From what I've read/tried to understand, pre-averaging phase isn't

practically a good idea, considering the ADEV natively does this, and you
end up with a lower estimate than reality. They state that time interval
counters effectively do this for frequency measurements.

I know that one can do this with caveats, and in essence this is what MDEV
does (I believe?), but is it not more 'real' to just downsample the phase
data? That is, drop N-1 samples per second (not decimating which would
filter the higher order components), and then ADEV the downsampled data.
I'm sure I'm missing some understanding here!

Thanks,
Simon


Message: 11
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 06:39:29 -0700
From: Wes wes@triconet.org
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice
Message-ID: 6d7e095b-8413-6060-03d6-98747e67c1ce@triconet.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Good question and the answer is, I don't know.? The photo shows June 2018, but
who know whether that's representative.? Being antsy, I opted to buy from a
seller in the US with quick shipping, rather than waiting six weeks for one from
Asia.

On 5/1/2020 8:37 PM, Bill Notfaded wrote:

Did you get a newer one with late 2019 at least on the front BG7TBL panel?
The one I got doesn't have the frequency offset bug and works really well.
It locks on multiple birds really quickly.  For the money it's hard to
beat.  I've been comparing it to my Thunderbolt E.  It obviously doesn't
provide the extra info you get with Trimble protocol (so no ocxo info in
Lady Heather) but I'd say it locks onto a lot more and faster than my
Trimble does even if I put it on GPS only constellation for fair playing
field.  I hate to say it but I'm not sure my Thunderbolt is really much
better.  You won't be sorry if it's a later BG7TBL GNSS model.  I've been
running mine on GPS and Galileo lately.

Bill


Message: 12
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 11:14:56 -0400
From: Bob kb8tq kb8tq@n1k.org
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data
Message-ID: 4D24832F-8127-411A-8566-973AC6F5D473@n1k.org
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8

Hi

In general the way you go from 1 to 10 to 100 seconds is to decimate
( = throw away) the data to get a phase record at the tau you are after.
Any averaging that you do will filter out some noise. Since ADEV is a
measure of noise, getting rid of it is not a real good idea. You can indeed
make your results look very good by doing this. What those results
would actually represent ?. who knows ?.

Bob

On May 2, 2020, at 8:24 AM, Simon Lewis siaclewis@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I have a fairly newbie question on averaging of phase data, prior to ADEV.

In a paper by Sherman and Jordens (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.03505.pdf) on
oscillator metrology using SDR (Ettus N210), for long term measurements (1
tau up) the group estimates an average phase to reduce the data volume.
They use both a novel lower-bound variance estimate, and what I assume was
a rectangular average of N samples per second (original data rate was
1Msamples/s). Both apparently provided similar results.

From what I've read/tried to understand, pre-averaging phase isn't
practically a good idea, considering the ADEV natively does this, and you
end up with a lower estimate than reality. They state that time interval
counters effectively do this for frequency measurements.

I know that one can do this with caveats, and in essence this is what MDEV
does (I believe?), but is it not more 'real' to just downsample the phase
data? That is, drop N-1 samples per second (not decimating which would
filter the higher order components), and then ADEV the downsampled data.
I'm sure I'm missing some understanding here!

Thanks,
Simon


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Message: 13
Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 15:55:19 +0000
From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" phk@phk.freebsd.dk
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
time-nuts@lists.febo.com, Bob kb8tq kb8tq@n1k.org
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data
Message-ID: 53514.1588434919@critter.freebsd.dk
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


In message 4D24832F-8127-411A-8566-973AC6F5D473@n1k.org, Bob kb8tq writes:

In general the way you go from 1 to 10 to 100 seconds is to decimate
( = throw away) the data to get a phase record at the tau you are after.

The problem with that, is that decimation may also throw away noise.

As a general scientific rule, if you measured, you use the measurements,
you cannot "pick & choose" amongst your measurements, not even if
you do it in a certifiably random way.

As I understand it, that is one of the minor problems the Modified
Allan Variance was (also) supposed to fix ?

--
Poul-Henning Kamp      | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk@FreeBSD.ORG        | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer      | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.


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Hi > On May 2, 2020, at 8:32 PM, Perry Sandeen via time-nuts <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote: > > GPSDO Questions > Learned Gentlemen, > First off, any GPSDO is better than none. > Now it's been stated on postings that some chicom GPSDO's are frequency locked (apparently not a good idea) and those that are phase locked. So how does one know what you are getting? I suspect asking the vendor would be pointless. You can still buy “OEM” GPSDO’s on eBay cheap, none of these are over $100: https://www.ebay.com/itm/trueposition-gpsdo-gps-module-1pps-10mhz/293561908484?hash=item4459a73d04:g:G10AAOSwPp9ekBSh <https://www.ebay.com/itm/trueposition-gpsdo-gps-module-1pps-10mhz/293561908484?hash=item4459a73d04:g:G10AAOSwPp9ekBSh> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-73090-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator/312280039293?hash=item48b5573f7d:g:3B8AAOSw~LBbqfIr <https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-73090-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator/312280039293?hash=item48b5573f7d:g:3B8AAOSw~LBbqfIr> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Symmetricom-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-w-shield-GT-8031/312280033244?hash=item48b55727dc:g:nloAAOSwKDpbqfBh <https://www.ebay.com/itm/Symmetricom-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-w-shield-GT-8031/312280033244?hash=item48b55727dc:g:nloAAOSwKDpbqfBh> https://www.ebay.com/itm/1x-RCGD-M-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-w-GT-8031/312306276819?hash=item48b6e799d3:g:veEAAOSwaalb5CQi <https://www.ebay.com/itm/1x-RCGD-M-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-w-GT-8031/312306276819?hash=item48b6e799d3:g:veEAAOSwaalb5CQi> https://www.ebay.com/itm/SAMSUNG-STP-2878LF-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-w-ublox-LEA-6T/312279920851?epid=7025110823&hash=item48b55570d3:g:LVQAAOSwQRVbm0O6 <https://www.ebay.com/itm/SAMSUNG-STP-2878LF-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-OCXO-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-w-ublox-LEA-6T/312279920851?epid=7025110823&hash=item48b55570d3:g:LVQAAOSwQRVbm0O6> https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-EPSON-TOYOCOM-TCO-6920N-10MHz-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-GPSDO/254344933612?hash=item3b3823b0ec:g:BPYAAOSw9-tdaH8M <https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-EPSON-TOYOCOM-TCO-6920N-10MHz-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-GPSDO/254344933612?hash=item3b3823b0ec:g:BPYAAOSw9-tdaH8M> https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-10MHz-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-GPSDO-GPS/263985049514?hash=item3d76bc2faa:g:CrwAAOSwymBbaPmA <https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-10MHz-GPS-Disciplined-Oscillator-GPSDO-GPS/263985049514?hash=item3d76bc2faa:g:CrwAAOSwymBbaPmA> None of those were built in a basement workshop. They all lived a life in some sort of telecom gear made by a major outfit. If you want the same OEM boards put into a package the price is just over $100. Yes the packaging was done by a part timer. https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-SAMSUNG-GPS-10MHz-X2-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna-ublox-LEA-6T-1-001/264520662327?hash=item3d96a8fd37:g:dbsAAOSw1kxdvvcY <https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-SAMSUNG-GPS-10MHz-X2-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna-ublox-LEA-6T-1-001/264520662327?hash=item3d96a8fd37:g:dbsAAOSw1kxdvvcY> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-GPS-Receiver-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-sine-and-square-wave/252162780444?hash=item3ab612ad1c:g:PqcAAOSww-Baabwy <https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trimble-GPS-Receiver-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Disciplined-Clock-sine-and-square-wave/252162780444?hash=item3ab612ad1c:g:PqcAAOSww-Baabwy> https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Mhz-GPSDO-OSCILLOQUARTZ-OSA-OEM-GPS-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-STAR-GPS-Clock/262861459973?hash=item3d33c39205:g:sbYAAOSwh2xYAjrp <https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Mhz-GPSDO-OSCILLOQUARTZ-OSA-OEM-GPS-GPSDO-10MHz-1PPS-STAR-GPS-Clock/262861459973?hash=item3d33c39205:g:sbYAAOSwh2xYAjrp> https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-Symmetricom-Inside-GPS-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna/263458624856?hash=item3d575b9558:g:bk8AAOSw9vlaael4 <https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-Symmetricom-Inside-GPS-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna/263458624856?hash=item3d575b9558:g:bk8AAOSw9vlaael4> No that’s not an exhaustive list in either category. There are hundreds of listings you could sort through. If anything, there is more variety out there today in GPSDO’s than there was 10 years ago. None of this is to say that the OEM boards are “best” in any way. They are the same sort of thing we have been buying for decades now. They are at the same sort of prices and have the same sort of heritage. > Bert posted a while back that his Tbolt occasionally had a hiccup that he was able to find when comparing it to a HP Rb and HP Cs. > So what can do other than live with these situations, which maybe in the long run, might for most of us, a minor unsolvable nuisance? > Also BTW are the Lucent GPSDO's a phase locked GPSDO since I have 2? You likely will not find any OEM GPSDO that does frequency lock. The applications they all go inare time sensitive. ( = the tight spec is on timing / holdover ). That pretty much forces them to do phase lock. Again, usual disclaimer, that should in no way imply that phase lock is better, just that it’s what they use. Bob > Regards, > Perrier > > > On Saturday, May 2, 2020, 9:00:11 AM PDT, time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com <time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com> wrote: > > Send time-nuts mailing list submissions to > time-nuts@lists.febo.com > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > time-nuts-request@lists.febo.com > > You can reach the person managing the list at > time-nuts-owner@lists.febo.com > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of time-nuts digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: GPSDO advice (Bob kb8tq) > 2. Re: GPSDO advice (Wes) > 3. Re: GPSDO advice (Richard Solomon) > 4. Re: GPSDO advice (Bill Notfaded) > 5. Re: power supplies (Poul-Henning Kamp) > 6. Re: power supplies (ed breya) > 7. Re: FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question (Matthias Welwarsky) > 8. Re: FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question (Didier Juges) > 9. Re: GPSDO advice (Bob kb8tq) > 10. Pre-averaging Phase Data (Simon Lewis) > 11. Re: GPSDO advice (Wes) > 12. Re: Pre-averaging Phase Data (Bob kb8tq) > 13. Re: Pre-averaging Phase Data (Poul-Henning Kamp) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 22:29:29 -0400 > From: Bob kb8tq <kb8tq@n1k.org> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice > Message-ID: <A6F3A633-827B-4841-8FCF-663A103927E0@n1k.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > Hi > > I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even > larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay. > Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends > sort of thing?. > > The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever > is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought > 5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and > the devices change again and then again. > > There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just > different. The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago. > That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends > on the device and how picky you are. > > This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom > Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing > for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10 > years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again. > > Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that > crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench. > > Bob > >> On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: >> >> An update on this: >> >> I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. >> >> The good news is that they both were responsive. The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB. Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card. >> >> As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down. >> >> Wes N7WS >> >> On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: >>> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A. I'll let you know if I hear back. >>> >>> Wes >>> >>> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: >>>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <mark@alignedsolutions.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury >>>>> GPSDO. >>>> >>>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced? >>>> >>>> KR >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com >> and follow the instructions there. > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 20:25:10 -0700 > From: Wes <wes@triconet.org> > To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice > Message-ID: <8c410a26-6463-1a4b-750f-bb6b72eb9564@triconet.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Hi Bob, > > According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday :-) > > I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth taking > the risk. > > Wes > > On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote: >> Hi >> >> I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even >> larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay. >> Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends >> sort of thing?. >> >> The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever >> is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought >> 5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and >> the devices change again and then again. >> >> There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just >> different. The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago. >> That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends >> on the device and how picky you are. >> >> This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom >> Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing >> for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10 >> years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again. >> >> Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that >> crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench. >> >> Bob >> >>> On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: >>> >>> An update on this: >>> >>> I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. >>> >>> The good news is that they both were responsive. The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB. Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card. >>> >>> As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down. >>> >>> Wes N7WS >>> >>> On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: >>>> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A. I'll let you know if I hear back. >>>> >>>> Wes >>>> >>>> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: >>>>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <mark@alignedsolutions.com> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury >>>>>> GPSDO. >>>>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced? >>>>> >>>>> KR > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 18:39:45 -0700 > From: Richard Solomon <dickw1ksz@gmail.com> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice > Message-ID: > <CAC5FBO-V2KgKQHFMG93spo7Joc4W41XtLcFrtJG=oj0VNZayLQ@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Why not just get a Trimble T-Bolt ? > Lots of them are still around. > > 73, Dick, W1KSZ > > On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 6:26 PM Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: > >> An update on this: >> >> I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, >> in >> Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. >> >> The good news is that they both were responsive. The bad news is they are >> both >> out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB. Brandywine clearly didn't >> want to >> sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card. >> >> As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this >> kind of >> money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to >> go is >> down. >> >> Wes N7WS >> >> On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: >>> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A. I'll let >> you >>> know if I hear back. >>> >>> Wes >>> >>> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: >>>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <mark@alignedsolutions.com> >> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly >> pursues >>>>> precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my >>>>> Jackson Labs Fury >>>>> GPSDO. >>>> >>>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the >> lockdown >>>> commenced? >>>> >>>> KR >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to >> http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com >> and follow the instructions there. >> > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 20:37:06 -0700 > From: Bill Notfaded <notfaded1@gmail.com> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice > Message-ID: > <CADToqn3RY6LhoLYp04AGfJ6AeyjOGDhSinoX+a8A7+Ez2bRgkw@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Did you get a newer one with late 2019 at least on the front BG7TBL panel? > The one I got doesn't have the frequency offset bug and works really well. > It locks on multiple birds really quickly. For the money it's hard to > beat. I've been comparing it to my Thunderbolt E. It obviously doesn't > provide the extra info you get with Trimble protocol (so no ocxo info in > Lady Heather) but I'd say it locks onto a lot more and faster than my > Trimble does even if I put it on GPS only constellation for fair playing > field. I hate to say it but I'm not sure my Thunderbolt is really much > better. You won't be sorry if it's a later BG7TBL GNSS model. I've been > running mine on GPS and Galileo lately. > > Bill > > On Fri, May 1, 2020, 8:25 PM Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: > >> Hi Bob, >> >> According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday >> :-) >> >> I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth >> taking >> the risk. >> >> Wes >> >> On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote: >>> Hi >>> >>> I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even >>> larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay. >>> Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends >>> sort of thing?. >>> >>> The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. >> Whatever >>> is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. >> If you bought >>> 5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past >> that and >>> the devices change again and then again. >>> >>> There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. >> Mostly just >>> different. The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 >> years ago. >>> That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that >> depends >>> on the device and how picky you are. >>> >>> This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in >> telecom >>> Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a >> $35 listing >>> for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another >> 5 or 10 >>> years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again. >>> >>> Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s >> not all that >>> crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench. >>> >>> Bob >>> >>>> On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: >>>> >>>> An update on this: >>>> >>>> I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop >> Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. >>>> >>>> The good news is that they both were responsive. The bad news is they >> are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB. Brandywine clearly >> didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a >> credit card. >>>> >>>> As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this >> kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I >> have to go is down. >>>> >>>> Wes N7WS >>>> >>>> On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: >>>>> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A. I'll >> let you know if I hear back. >>>>> >>>>> Wes >>>>> >>>>> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: >>>>>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer < >> mark@alignedsolutions.com> wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly >> pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with >> my Jackson Labs Fury >>>>>>> GPSDO. >>>>>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the >> lockdown commenced? >>>>>> >>>>>> KR >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to >> http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com >> and follow the instructions there. >> > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 06:45:55 +0000 > From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk@phk.freebsd.dk> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > <time-nuts@lists.febo.com>, jimlux <jimlux@earthlink.net> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] power supplies > Message-ID: <51396.1588401955@critter.freebsd.dk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > -------- > In message <73bfcf33-8b29-38a6-d5a7-9192375d4f0e@earthlink.net>, jimlux writes: > >> I suppose I can package a bunch of those up in a bigger box with banana >> jacks or binding posts. > > Use power-pole connectors, they are cheap and *so* much better. > > I'm using a couple of fused West Mountain Radio distributors to > spread my 24VDC and 12VDC around the lab, highly recommended. > > -- > Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 > phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956 > FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe > Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 23:50:53 -0700 > From: ed breya <eb@telight.com> > To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] power supplies > Message-ID: <af879375-2c73-d61e-a2bf-510e8debb7e8@telight.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Power supplies are indeed mostly commodity items, but absolutely > essential. I have a large collection of OEM open-frame units, in linear > and SMPS, and a small collection of commercial bench supplies, and some > home-made ones. > > You can of course get a bunch of bench units and set them up for every > possible need, and with a dazzling array of readouts and adjustments. > What matters is what you mostly need to do, and what you want not to > happen. If you have to work on one thing at a time, with one to a few > voltages, it's pretty straightforward to set up and be ready to monitor > what's going on. If you have a bunch of things that use standard > supplies, that just need to run simultaneously, I think it's better to > just have simple supplies that put out a bunch of standard voltages for > them, with no fancy controls or measurement capability. > > I've designed and built and used many SMPSs over the years, which is why > I prefer good old-school linear supplies. If you don't need high power > density or levels, you should go with linear, regardless of whether it's > a commercial bench unit, OEM, or slapped together yourself. It will > start out much cleaner, involving less grief when it comes to noise > control - almost a guaranteed issue in time-nut type situations. You > can't avoid SMPS noise entirely, since we're awash with their signals > all around us, from PCs and equipment and appliances and practically > everything else, but at least you can try to not add too much more right > in the middle of your work. Don't get me wrong - I love SMPSs and > related technology, and all the stuff they enable us to have and enjoy. > Life would be a lot different and less fun (but quieter) without them. > > If you just need an assortment of supply voltages at modest currents, > one way is to put together an OEM linear supply like a standard +/-15V & > +5V one, with some three-terminal regulator circuits at other desired > voltages, and means to hook them up to the items. Refinements like > OVP/RVP etc can be added, but of course add some complexity. > > One thing I always do, especially carefully for high-value or > one-of-a-kind items, is add intrinsic protection against any anticipated > powering faults like over-voltage and reverse polarity. No matter how > fancy your supplies are, it's still possible to make a mistake in hookup > or settings, and ruin the device being powered. > > The same applies to the power supplies themselves. With a bench supply, > you don't necessarily know what would happen to it and its load, if you > say, accidentally short a +12V supply to the +5V. Would it damage the > supply and its load? If you fully know the characteristics and specs and > what's behind the front panel, you can predict the outcome. If you built > it yourself, you know that that you've (hopefully) anticipated the > possibility and provided for this event, or, the supply may not be > protected, but you've already added intrinsic protection to the load device. > > So, it can get complicated, and as always, it depends... > > Ed > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 7 > Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 09:58:55 +0200 > From: Matthias Welwarsky <time-nuts@welwarsky.de> > To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com, John Bievenour <john@bvnhr.net> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question > Message-ID: <4852208.V09MV4QL1C@linux-5fgm.suse> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > On Freitag, 1. Mai 2020 23:42:46 CEST John Bievenour wrote: >> I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to >> SMD), so please forgive the basic question. >> >> I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency (pin 3 >> never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle to >> fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000. >> >> When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown, which >> I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the >> DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the right >> hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by a >> stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row. >> >> I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of searching >> and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum >> Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down >> the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out: >> >> 1) is my identification correct? > > Sounds about right, going by the images I found. > >> 2) is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the top >> makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ? 3) is the >> tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)? > >> 4) what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)? > > I don't think you need to worry about that too much. The capacitor is probably > for filtering on the input of the regulator. For output filtering it's too > small. The datasheet for the LM2941 I found says at least 22?F is needed for > stable operation and ESR between 100mOhm 1 Ohm. So, the output filter cap must > be somewhere else. > > Just make sure the size matches. The band on the top only marks the positive > side of the capacitor. > >> 5) for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and >> series just by decoding the writing on it? > > Without knowing the exact part number and looking up the values in the data > sheet it's impossible to know these details. I usually compare the top > markings against manufacturer data sheets until I find a close match and then > go from there. > >> >> Thank you very much in advance. >> - John >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to >> http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com and follow >> the instructions there. > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 8 > Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 06:57:03 -0500 > From: Didier Juges <shalimr9@gmail.com> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] FE-5680A - Newbie capacitor question > Message-ID: > <CAMQqFunaDdZR_3AXThqHZyVXLy7c8gA2Qp8fO5CuX-ocQMAuCw@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Tantalum capacitors are known to occasionally short for no good reason. > Give them a reason and they'll be happy to oblige. > Things that can damage a tantalum cap in a hurry include excessive voltage, > reverse polarity, overheating (likely with hand soldering) and current > spikes. > If it were me, and assuming it is at the input of a linear regulator, I > would put a ceramic multilayer capacitor in its place. > It will likely be much smaller (requiring a short jumper to match the > solder pads of the larger tantalum) but a lot more reliable, and you are > less likely to damage it by hand soldering. > (some linear regulators are unstable with a large ceramic capacitor on the > output without proper damping, but there is typically no issue at the input) > > Didier KO4BB > > On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 2:59 AM Matthias Welwarsky <time-nuts@welwarsky.de> > wrote: > >> On Freitag, 1. Mai 2020 23:42:46 CEST John Bievenour wrote: >>> I'm an amateur electronics hobbyist who's still a newbie (especially to >>> SMD), so please forgive the basic question. >>> >>> I recently acquired a FE-5680A that was failing to lock on frequency >> (pin 3 >>> never went low). It will power up, sweep up and down, and finally settle >> to >>> fluctuate around 9.9999999 to 10.0000000. >>> >>> When I opened the case, I found that one of the capacitors had blown, >> which >>> I believe might be the reason. Looking at the top of the board, with the >>> DB9 on your left, the capacitor in question directly across from the >> right >>> hand 2941 voltage regulator. It has 105 on the first row, 35 followed by >> a >>> stylized K on the second row, and 333 on the last row. >>> >>> I'd like to attempt to replace the blown cap. After doing lots of >> searching >>> and reading, I'm pretty sure this is a Kemet 35 VDC 1uF SMD Tantalum >>> Capacitor (never knew these existed until yesterday). I've narrowed down >>> the options on Mouser, but I can't figure out: >>> >>> 1) is my identification correct? >> >> Sounds about right, going by the images I found. >> >>> 2) is it a T489, T491, T494, T495, T496, T498, or T499 (the band at the >> top >>> makes me think it's a T498, T491, T494, T495, T498, or a T499) ? 3) is >> the >>> tolerance 10% or 20% (I think it's 10%)? >> >>> 4) what is the ESR (I have options from 1 Ohm to 83 mOhms)? >> >> I don't think you need to worry about that too much. The capacitor is >> probably >> for filtering on the input of the regulator. For output filtering it's too >> small. The datasheet for the LM2941 I found says at least 22?F is needed >> for >> stable operation and ESR between 100mOhm 1 Ohm. So, the output filter cap >> must >> be somewhere else. >> >> Just make sure the size matches. The band on the top only marks the >> positive >> side of the capacitor. >> >>> 5) for future reference, how am I able to tell the tolerance, ESR, and >>> series just by decoding the writing on it? >> >> Without knowing the exact part number and looking up the values in the >> data >> sheet it's impossible to know these details. I usually compare the top >> markings against manufacturer data sheets until I find a close match and >> then >> go from there. >> >>> >>> Thank you very much in advance. >>> - John >>> _______________________________________________ >>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >>> To unsubscribe, go to >>> http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com and >> follow >>> the instructions there. >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to >> http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com >> and follow the instructions there. >> > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 9 > Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 08:33:20 -0400 > From: Bob kb8tq <kb8tq@n1k.org> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice > Message-ID: <CFD62CF1-B20E-4D0E-94C8-10C5CDFC6304@n1k.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > Hi > > Like pretty much all electronics GPSDO?s have been a ?designed in > the USA / built across the ocean? sort of thing for a long time. The > current crop of Trimble and Symmetrical salvage parts on eBay > are simply the latest wave. They are the ?next generation? of the parts > we all bought 10 or 15 years ago. No better / no worse, just different. > > Bob > >> On May 1, 2020, at 11:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: >> >> Hi Bob, >> >> According to the USPS tracking number I'll have a BG7TBL GPSDO on Monday :-) >> >> I really wanted to "Buy American" but a 10 dB price difference is worth taking the risk. >> >> Wes >> >> On 5/1/2020 7:29 PM, Bob kb8tq wrote: >>> Hi >>> >>> I would guess that the vast majority of folks on the list and an even >>> larger percentage doing the FMT are buying their GPSDO?s on eBay. >>> Which ones they buy and how well the work is very much a ?that depends >>> sort of thing?. >>> >>> The crop of devices at low(er) prices changes every 3 to 5 years. Whatever >>> is being torn apart right now will be contributing the low cost stuff. If you bought >>> 5 years ago your choices were very different. Go back 5 or 10 years past that and >>> the devices change again and then again. >>> >>> There?s no reason to believe that ?things were better in the old days?. Mostly just >>> different. The issues have been worked out on stuff that hit eBay 20 years ago. >>> That?s just the way it works. How well they have been worked out ?. that depends >>> on the device and how picky you are. >>> >>> This does not simply apply to GPSDO?s. A while back eBay was awash in telecom >>> Rb?s. Some bought so many they can?t keep track of all of them. Today a $35 listing >>> for an Rb is pretty unusual. That?s just supply and demand. Wait another 5 or 10 >>> years and we probably will be awash in cheap ones again. >>> >>> Right now ?entry level? GPSDO?s are still below $100 delivered. That?s not all that >>> crazy compared to a lot of gear in a typical shack or on a typical bench. >>> >>> Bob >>> >>>> On May 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Wes <wes@triconet.org> wrote: >>>> >>>> An update on this: >>>> >>>> I emailed both Jackson and Brandywine for prices on both the Desktop Fury, in Jackson's case, and the board versions from each of them. >>>> >>>> The good news is that they both were responsive. The bad news is they are both out of my price range. Jackson by about 3 dB. Brandywine clearly didn't want to sell me anything, as exemplified by a fee of $47 to use a credit card. >>>> >>>> As much as I would like to be more nutty, I can't justify spending this kind of money just to participate in ARRL FMTs where the only direction I have to go is down. >>>> >>>> Wes N7WS >>>> >>>> On 4/24/2020 11:56 AM, Wes wrote: >>>>> Taking some of the advice offered, I've emailed them for P&A. I'll let you know if I hear back. >>>>> >>>>> Wes >>>>> >>>>> On 4/24/2020 10:45 AM, Kevin Rowett wrote: >>>>>>> On Apr 24, 2020, at 10:32 AM, Mark Spencer <mark@alignedsolutions.com> wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Speaking both as an amateur radio operator and some one who modestly pursues precision time and frequency as a hobby, I am extremely happy with my Jackson Labs Fury >>>>>>> GPSDO. >>>>>> Speaking of Jackson Labs, has anyone heard from them, since the lockdown commenced? >>>>>> >>>>>> KR >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com >> and follow the instructions there. > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 10 > Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 14:24:47 +0200 > From: Simon Lewis <siaclewis@gmail.com> > To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com > Subject: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data > Message-ID: > <CALp6zztjqTJ-wrPTjbF06BUc_f3+tO6LVLuriPygZ6kW1hBoQA@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Hi all, > > I have a fairly newbie question on averaging of phase data, prior to ADEV. > > In a paper by Sherman and Jordens (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.03505.pdf) on > oscillator metrology using SDR (Ettus N210), for long term measurements (1 > tau up) the group estimates an average phase to reduce the data volume. > They use both a novel lower-bound variance estimate, and what I assume was > a rectangular average of N samples per second (original data rate was > 1Msamples/s). Both apparently provided similar results. > >> From what I've read/tried to understand, pre-averaging phase isn't > practically a good idea, considering the ADEV natively does this, and you > end up with a lower estimate than reality. They state that time interval > counters effectively do this for frequency measurements. > > I know that one can do this with caveats, and in essence this is what MDEV > does (I believe?), but is it not more 'real' to just downsample the phase > data? That is, drop N-1 samples per second (not decimating which would > filter the higher order components), and then ADEV the downsampled data. > I'm sure I'm missing some understanding here! > > Thanks, > Simon > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 11 > Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 06:39:29 -0700 > From: Wes <wes@triconet.org> > To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] GPSDO advice > Message-ID: <6d7e095b-8413-6060-03d6-98747e67c1ce@triconet.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Good question and the answer is, I don't know.? The photo shows June 2018, but > who know whether that's representative.? Being antsy, I opted to buy from a > seller in the US with quick shipping, rather than waiting six weeks for one from > Asia. > > > On 5/1/2020 8:37 PM, Bill Notfaded wrote: >> Did you get a newer one with late 2019 at least on the front BG7TBL panel? >> The one I got doesn't have the frequency offset bug and works really well. >> It locks on multiple birds really quickly. For the money it's hard to >> beat. I've been comparing it to my Thunderbolt E. It obviously doesn't >> provide the extra info you get with Trimble protocol (so no ocxo info in >> Lady Heather) but I'd say it locks onto a lot more and faster than my >> Trimble does even if I put it on GPS only constellation for fair playing >> field. I hate to say it but I'm not sure my Thunderbolt is really much >> better. You won't be sorry if it's a later BG7TBL GNSS model. I've been >> running mine on GPS and Galileo lately. >> >> Bill > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 12 > Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 11:14:56 -0400 > From: Bob kb8tq <kb8tq@n1k.org> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > <time-nuts@lists.febo.com> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data > Message-ID: <4D24832F-8127-411A-8566-973AC6F5D473@n1k.org> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > Hi > > In general the way you go from 1 to 10 to 100 seconds is to decimate > ( = throw away) the data to get a phase record at the tau you are after. > Any averaging that you do will filter out some noise. Since ADEV is a > measure of noise, getting rid of it is not a real good idea. You can indeed > make your results look *very* good by doing this. What those results > would actually represent ?. who knows ?. > > Bob > >> On May 2, 2020, at 8:24 AM, Simon Lewis <siaclewis@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Hi all, >> >> I have a fairly newbie question on averaging of phase data, prior to ADEV. >> >> In a paper by Sherman and Jordens (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.03505.pdf) on >> oscillator metrology using SDR (Ettus N210), for long term measurements (1 >> tau up) the group estimates an average phase to reduce the data volume. >> They use both a novel lower-bound variance estimate, and what I assume was >> a rectangular average of N samples per second (original data rate was >> 1Msamples/s). Both apparently provided similar results. >> >> From what I've read/tried to understand, pre-averaging phase isn't >> practically a good idea, considering the ADEV natively does this, and you >> end up with a lower estimate than reality. They state that time interval >> counters effectively do this for frequency measurements. >> >> I know that one can do this with caveats, and in essence this is what MDEV >> does (I believe?), but is it not more 'real' to just downsample the phase >> data? That is, drop N-1 samples per second (not decimating which would >> filter the higher order components), and then ADEV the downsampled data. >> I'm sure I'm missing some understanding here! >> >> Thanks, >> Simon >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com >> To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com >> and follow the instructions there. > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 13 > Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 15:55:19 +0000 > From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk@phk.freebsd.dk> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > <time-nuts@lists.febo.com>, Bob kb8tq <kb8tq@n1k.org> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Pre-averaging Phase Data > Message-ID: <53514.1588434919@critter.freebsd.dk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > -------- > In message <4D24832F-8127-411A-8566-973AC6F5D473@n1k.org>, Bob kb8tq writes: > >> In general the way you go from 1 to 10 to 100 seconds is to decimate >> ( = throw away) the data to get a phase record at the tau you are after. > > The problem with that, is that decimation may _also_ throw away noise. > > As a general scientific rule, if you measured, you use the measurements, > you cannot "pick & choose" amongst your measurements, not even if > you do it in a certifiably random way. > > As I understand it, that is one of the minor problems the Modified > Allan Variance was (also) supposed to fix ? > > -- > Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 > phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956 > FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe > Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list > time-nuts@lists.febo.com > http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > > > ------------------------------ > > End of time-nuts Digest, Vol 190, Issue 3 > ***************************************** > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > and follow the instructions there.