[Elecraft] KX3 Accuracy of clock

[Walter Underwood]

The KX3 Utility could estimate the clock adjustment, if it is the only thing that sets the clock. It knows the time it was last set and can measure the drift.

wunder
K6WRU

On Dec 2, 2013, at 3:43 PM, Fred Jensen <k6dgw at foothill.net> wrote:

> Actually ... "atomic clocks" such as the UTC one hanging on the wall of my shack [that I won at radio club raffle] don't "poll 10MHz."  They listen for WWVB on 60KHz, which mine hears only at night here in CA. WWVB broadcasts a continuous IRIG-H time code with a somewhat obscure AM modulation scheme [they recently added the same time code using a phase modulation scheme *very* loosely resembling PSK-31].  Doing this in the K3 would require a 60KHz receiver, demodulator, decoder, and probably a ferrite antenna.
> 
> Whether or not mine updates at night depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is ambient noise.  It usually is in sync with WWV on any of the MF and HF frequencies, but that's not guaranteed, I just checked and it's about 35 secs slow now.  My dive watch does vastly better. :-)
> 
> I volunteer at the local blood bank and recording times is important to the documentation of the process.  Consequently, they installed "atomic clocks", our little center has 5 of them, not all the same mfr, scattered around to be visible to the staff.  I've watched them differ by more than 90 seconds at times, and rarely are any two of them in sync.
> 
> I assume my K3 runs the clock [which I never use] off the one of the processor clocks.  I recently built a 40-station irrigation controller for my wife [we live on 5 acres and she's a kamikaze gardener] using the Hamstack components.  Their C-library includes a clock adjustment capability.  I have two separate CPU's, one is a little fast and one is just a tad slow.  I now have them adjusted so they're within a second or two of each other after a month or so.  Maybe the K3 could include something like that, accessible through the K3 Utility?
> 
> 73,
> 
> Fred K6DGW
> - Northern California Contest Club
> - CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
> - www.cqp.org
> 
> On 12/2/2013 12:14 PM, Todd Atkins wrote:
>> I wonder how easy/hard it would be to have the radio poll 10Mhz (like the
>> atomic clocks do) every so often when powered on, to keep the time more
>> accurately.  That would be a pretty cool feature.
>> 
>> Todd, K4MSW
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

--
Walter Underwood
wunder at wunderwood.org