All,

During out last ADXA meeting in Russellville, John and George gave a great presentation on how to get more out of WSJT-X. One item that they covered was the use of an app called BTKTime ( https://www.maniaradio.it/en/bkttimesync.html ). I tried this in place of Dimension 4, with a $20 GPS Puck form Amazon. Took less that 10 minutes to install the software and puck and I have not looked back. Works great and I don’t have to worry it the time standard being used to check is still available on line or not.

Well worth the cost of the puck.

My 2 cents, and thanks to George and John.

73,
J Ferguson
N5LKE

On Feb 28, 2023, at 1:27 PM, jayw5jay <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Steve,

By the way I think Dimension 4 is no more. At least that's what I've read and the website seems to be permanently down since the last week. The domain address name has been taken over by phone company. 

So for the newbies looks like we'll have to go back to Meinberg which is not easy to find. However in the WSJT-X users guide they do provide Direct links for Meinberg. It's just sort of convoluted if you aren't using multiple screens. However Meinberg does seem to be a little better as far as the sync goes compared to Dimension 4 by 100 to 200 MS.
 
As they say in the qrp lists your mileage may vary.

73 jay..


Sent from my Galaxy


-------- Original message --------
From: "Steve, W5KI" <[email protected]>
Date: 2/28/23 11:14 AM (GMT-06:00)
To: ADXA <[email protected]>
Subject: [ADXA] 3B7M - 21089 or 21089.5 FT8

3B7M 21089 FT8

First of all, decent signal even with up to 5 streams splitting the power out there, but it is dropping.  From the DF they are on, be sure to use above +1000 from that lower freq of 21089, just to be sure for F/H.


The rest is probably TLDR for you big guns:

Their time sync is pretty unstable.  They've been staying between +1.5 to +1.9 DT error, most of time I've been monitoring.  Not that such a difference will always mess with decoding, but with this huge crowd of EU & stateside, if I can be sure I have a slight advantage of never being missed in their decodes just because of a differing DT ...  I think that's good. 

Obviously many folks are being worked with that difference in DT.  BUT, that being said, when I called for a while and no reply, I changed my time to match theirs, and got a reply in a couple of sequences. 

I'm seeing many though that have changed to match their DT.  For those that don't know about JTSync, it is a standaline small program, to use when no other sync source is available, etc.  It  calculates an "average" of DT for the multiple stations being received, and will correct to that by a "click" only.  It won't change your time unless you click UPDATE.  I've rarely used that or needed to use it.  BUT.... a short-cut is to "right-click" a particular station, and then sync with one click to their "bad" timing.  Then proceed to try and work them.  Quick and easy. 

I use Dimension 4 for my time setting, and have it set for 10 minute updates.  My Windows 10 hold time correctly much longer, but I like to keep it close.  One click and I can exit.  Work the bad timed station, then a couple of clicks after the QSO and I'm sync'ed back to correct time.

Finally, already had all modes, so only need them on 160m, and 15m & up with any mode.  Glad to get the first one knocked off early.

Steve, W5KI

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