[time-nuts] pn3048 software

John Miles john at miles.io
Wed Nov 5 14:40:34 EST 2014


> The software for these gizmos dates back to Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
> That’s a way back. Even getting it running on Windows 95 was a bit of a
> problem. The biggest issue is that it was hand optimized for some of the
> timeout delays.
> 
> If you bring it up, what you want is an old / slow PC with the oldest OS you can
> find a copy of.

Actually it'll work fine on everything up to and including Windows 8.1 x64, if you can get it to install.  The big problem with future-proofing VB6 apps isn't the ability to run the programs themselves, but the fact that the standard application installer had dependencies on 16-bit Windows that are (finally) no longer supported by Microsoft.  My PN3048 distribution comes with a batch file that, at least empirically, seems to do the job.... but still, it's smart to do a full system backup before messing with it.

> > One of the things that can be done is determining the noise floor of the
> system.
> > To determine the noise floor I have used a noise generator with a
> programmable step attenuator through a resistive combiner with the oscillator
> under test output.
> >
> > Increase the attenuation until the noise source on-off level is undetectable.
> > This is an easy way to measure the system noise floor.
> > Noise sources are usually cheap on ebay because most people do not know
> how to use them.

I think you may be confusing the 3048A system with a noise figure meter.  The 3048A system characterizes its own noise floor with built-in test sources and a user-supplied 90-degree splitter.

-- john, KE5FX
Miles Design LLC



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