[time-nuts] Ronald Held's main question

WB6BNQ wb6bnq at cox.net
Tue Dec 18 00:07:16 EST 2007


Hi Ronald,

This list server is composed of three general classes of people.  Those who 1) have
just a passing interest in the subject, 2) those who delve into it on a professional
or amateur working level and 3) Some seriously warped individuals who far exceed the
distribution of what is considered normal (you know who you are!).

Because of the above definition, the range of provided answers will cover many view
points.  Thus, you may  find the responses difficult to sort out for your purposes.

I may be wrong but am going to deduce from your last sentence, "If I can get a signal
inside or outside, what then ?", that you have had very little to no exposure to the
field of Time and Frequency Metrology.  In that regard, and to answer  your question,
I highly suggest reading the following NIST publications.

# 1. The first is a general history of NIST and its standards.  It is noteworthy
because it gives a sense of why we  are where we are today.

http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/pdf/1485.pdf


# 2. The second one is a short paper that delves into the mechanics of Time &
Frequency measurement.  This  one will give you a basic understanding of how it is
done.  This paper is clearly part of a bigger  publication, although I have not seen
the whole publication.

http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/pdf/1498.pdf


# 3.  This is the  - - -  BIBLE - - -  Strongly recommended

This is a very large manual at more than 80 megabytes, but very well worth the time
to download it.  This NBS (NIST) publication, produced in 1974, should be the defacto
reading material for any starting class in Time & Frequency metrology.  Why some
idealist at NIST lost their marbles and decided they should not make it available on
their WEB site is beyond me.

Fortunately, it is available at the following Hawaii University site :

http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/techreports/PDF/NBS140.pdf


It seems that you have some need or want to make your computer more accurate from a
TIME point of view.  A number of approaches can be used for such an undertaking.  If
you are just looking to make you computer relatively accurate, a few computer
programs are available that will synchronize your computer to a recognized NETWORK
standard server.  This method may be all that you need and it requires no local
hardware and fussing with antennas and the like.

Before spending money and physical effort that may not be necessary, please read
through the 3 above references to determine if you really want to get involved to the
level of additional hardware and expense.

Bill....WB6BNQ



Ronald Held wrote:

> Since the moving option is out, perhaps I need to investigate whether
> I currently can get any inside or outside signal. Is ther3=e an
> inexpensive way given that I do not have any circuit assemble skills?
> The complex will allow dishes as long as the are completely inside the
> balcony(I speculate that it is at the behest of the local cable
> company). I do not recall seeing any dishes on building in my complex.
> If I can get a signal inside or outside, what then?
>                                                Ronald
>




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