[Lowfer] I must have upset the Time Lords? (MSF,DCF77,HBG)

[clive at ancient-mariner.co.uk]

My plan yesterday was to monitor and record the simultaneous transmissions
of the leap-seconds from Europe's three radio time-code transmitters. MSF
Anthorn, Cumbria on 60.0kHz, DCF77 Mainflingen, Germany on 77.5kHz and HBG
Prangins, Switzerland on 75.0kHz. For this I was using an RF Space SDR-IQ
receiver http://www.rfspace.com/SDR-IQ.html and an e-probe antenna. The
software for this was the supplied SpecraVue, which has a nice spectrum plus
waterfall display. 


I set the software for 57.5 - 82.5kHz so as to encompass all three stations
and trials during the day showed that recording a 200MB file would give me
just over 5 minutes. So, started this off at 23:57:25 and went out to let
the New Year in. 

On my return, found that the screen had frozen at 23:59:58 - so not too
happy. Anyway, on examining the recording, found that it was 94MB (which
would fit) BUT on replay found that it had captured the whole 5 minutes. My
happiness was short lived, since then found that the time stamping was
around 25 seconds out! This despite using an internet time server to correct
my pc's clock half an hour or so earlier: ntp1.npl.co.uk  - So not quite as
intended. 

But what is strange is that earlier yesterday noticed that the time of an
incoming telephone call was wrong on my phones caller-display. I have a
Delta 700 phone which is 2-line. One line to my BT (British
Telecommunications) line and the other on my VoIP line which is from my
DrayTek Vigor 2800 modem. This modem also gets its time from the same
internet time server: ntp1.npl.co.uk - so I forced a correction and my
phone's time is now correct for calls via VoIP (a call via BT would correct
it to BT time). 

Checking this afternoon, I now find that my pc clock has been drifting
wildly, it's currently 30 seconds fast and I re-corrected it at 13:00 - so
looks like it needs a new CMOS battery, strange about the VoIP modem though.
Although common to both issues, I'm sure that the NPL's internet time server
is not the problem. 

So back to the drawing board for the next leap-second. 

Cheers 

Clive

GW4EYO

 

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