[time-nuts] The home time-lab

Bob Stewart bob at evoria.net
Thu Jul 7 20:44:09 EDT 2016


I hope this isn't too far off topic, as this is having a big impact on my testing.

I decided to run an A/B test on one of my GPSDOs: comparing the phase of the two 10MHz output channels.  In the middle of the night, there was a long series of 35ns pops in the phase data.  Strangely enough, there was nothing in the data collected directly from the unit involved.  The preceding two days we had had a number of switching transients where the lights blinked but nothing shut down.  So, putting one and one together, I suspect that a fair percentage of the strange results I've been getting has been power-grid related.
So, what to do?  I've been looking at UPS devices, and I don't even understand enough to waste my money on a bad one.  The two big questions seem to be "on-line" and "sine wave".  Make that three: can I trust the mfgs claims?  Is there something affordable that could run a pair of 5370s and maybe another 50W worth of DUTs for up to an hour or two and not be prey to power-line transients?  Or would it be more cost effective to somehow monitor the power line for spikes or phase jumps and blow off tests or cut out the offending data?  From time to time we get a thread on power-line nuts.  Should I have been paying more attention?

Bob - AE6RV
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