[time-nuts] New Member / Z3801

[Bob Camp]

Hi

> On Jan 17, 2016, at 9:59 AM, Artek Manuals <Manuals at ArtekManuals.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi guys
> 
> Dave at ArtekManuals.com here. Long time electronics enthusiast/tinkerer/ ham radio op.
> Recently moved and am in the process of setting up my long dreamed of a planned electronics lab and radio shack (NR1DX).
> 
> At the heart of the lab is a HP Z3801 GPSDO to provide  an external 10MHz frequency reference. I bought the unit about 15 years ago but it has been in environmentally controlled storage ever since. Serial prefix is 3517Axxxxx and I am running this on a +54VDC supply. Upon firing the Z3801 up, the first conundrum I am running into is that the unit does not seem to support setting the date above 12/31/2007. Sometimes during the survey mode it will automatically set the correct 2016 date , other times during the survey the date stays stuck on 1996. The unit tracks the satellites and mostly settles in around 1 second PPS at +/- 20ns with a holdover of 4 to 8us. More about the "mostly" comment in a later post.
> 
> On the surface the actual reported date is not a big deal for me. as long as the date is not critical to the GPSDO function? The engineer in me would like to be able to set the date correctly ......just because. When attempting to set the using GPS:INIT:DATE I get an E-222 error (data out of range).
> 
> So here are my initial questions.
> 1) I assume that the date thing is a firmware issue? Is there updated firmware out there that allows dates above 2007, 12, 31?

The firmware issue is in the GPS module inside the 3801. The “solution” is to swap out the GPS module. 

> 2) If all I care about is 10MHz accuracy, do I need to care about the date?

No, the date in no way impacts the 10 MHz accuracy.

> 3) Is there a different command string I should be using?

You may eventually get it to take for a while. Check “GPS rollover” in the archives. There is a lot of information there on what’s going on. 

> 4)Software: I am running HP SATSTAT and Z38XX on a WIN-XP/32 laptop ...IS there something better (or different) I should be running in the way of FREE software? I looked at the GPSCon package and so far questions about support for the software and portability eventually to WIN-10 supported have gone unanswered (not a good sign)

Again, check the archives. The Z38xx software is a good way to go. It was originally written for the 3801.

> 
> Finally I am sure that the above have been addressed on older posts, but I gave up searching in frustration.  Is there an easy way to search the ENTIRE list archive. It seems that the archives must be queried one month at time which is REALLY TEDIOUS

Google will search them quite nicely. 

Bob

> 
> Dave
> NR1DX
> ArtekManuals.com
> 
> -- 
> Dave
> Manuals at ArtekManuals.com
> www.ArtekManuals.com
> 
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