[OKDXA] FT8 and Computer Time

[Peter Laws N5UWY]

I've posted this many times to many groups over the years.  Started so
long ago, XP was still a thing.  If you are using Windows XP, BTW, you
are doing it wrong.  20 year old OSes are not illegal but it should be
illegal to connect them to the internet.  Links are still good, but
the ntp.org WTS link is growing old (bottom line is that Windows SNTP,
now NTP client has gotten better but still isn't full-featured so get
the Meinberg client and stop spending money for things that are free).
  GM8ARV provides the satsignal.eu site, and you can see who developed
NTP below.

Posted by me to other lists over the years:

Time comes up here all the time.  XP's SNTP client isn't very robust
and, by default, only checks the time once/week.  W7's is better but
not by much.  Go here if you want to make it work a little better:
http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Support/WindowsTimeService

Meinberg's NTP client for Windows is far better since it's the
reference client compiled and packaged for Windows.  This site steps
you through installation and configuration.  The software is free.
http://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/setup.html

All the RFCs for NTP and most of the software have come from a group
at the University of Delaware lead by W3HCF.  Details
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/backroom.html

There is no reason to ever have your system clock be more than a few ms off UTC.

<EOF>



On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 10:14 AM N5OK <coyday62 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Jeff,
>
> Great tip.  I use D4 plus time fudge.  I try to keep as many pluses as
> minuses in the DT column.
>
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 9:29 AM Jeff Martin <jeffmartin at valornet.com> wrote:
>
> >   Ever wonder why you are not decoding the FT8 station, or he is not
> > decoding you? Perhaps your computer or his computer time is off. My laptop
> > time will drift by a couple of seconds over a day's period of time. Timing
> > is critical with the sequencing of FT8 or FT4 signals. If you have your
> > computer set to sync with a windows time source, that may be sufficient.
> > Some use other programs like Dimension 4 (D4). I use a little hockey puck
> > USB device that pulls time from the GPS satellites along with a program
> > called NMEATime. When I was in VP2V, my hockey puck device wasn't working.
> > I
> > didn't take time to mess with it then. I later found that its port number
> > had changed in windows... thank you windows... Anyway, if you don't have
> > internet or for some other reason you can't sync with a time source,
> > another
> > handy program to have is TimeFudge, available from the QRZ page of W9MDB:
> > https://www.qrz.com/db/W9MDB .
> >   Look at the DT column showing several decodes on the display of FT8. The
> > DT number should be 0.0 or close to it. If you see numbers up above 1.0
> > plus
> > or minus you may need to adjust your clock. A time sync program would do
> > this automatically. Or you can do it manually with TimeFudge. I used
> > TimeFudge every day from VP2V... when I remembered... hi... Hope this
> > helps...
> >
> > 73,
> > Jeff - K5WE
> >
> >
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>
> --
> Coy C Day, N5OK
> 20685 SW 29
> Union City, OK 73090
> H(405) 483-5632 C(405) 448-2368
> n5ok at arrl.net
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-- 
Peter Laws | N5UWY | plaws plaws net | Travel by Train!