Hi Paul,

Don't know what the problem is with your Spectracom 8164 is, but my HP 117 hasen't been affected in the slightest. Its been off for the last couple months or so, so mebby that's why, but....

Interesting, short announcement and I didn't see any mention of what the ultimate goal might be, any Ideas?

There's also been a major solar storm, which the 8164's don't like. Mine's been going off lock in the evening for a couple hours each night since Tuesday.

Well, that's very interesting.

I have a home-brew WWVB clock - it's basically an update to an old SB-630 Station Console.
It uses a C-MAX CMMR-6P receiver in it.

http://km5z.us/SB-630_console.php

During this weeks's Solar 'festival', it's been pegged at full strength / no errors. I think it's been syncing itself every minute.

I thought that very odd, since HF was in terrible shape - 80m and 40m were filled with a constant background noise.
40m was much better last night.

Mike Y
KM5Z

Off topic:
Mike, about fifteen years ago, during solar storm, I picked up TV channel 3, from Wilmington Beach, NC. I was in my house in Carrollton, TX. The video and audio were full quieting for a little under ten minutes, long enough to catch some programming and a "local" ad or two (I got station ID this way!) and then it was gone. I sent a QSL but heard no reply. It's a darn shame that they didn't actually employ engineers anymore.. An engineer would have returned the QSL!
Six meters can be a lot of fun too during these events.

Clocks only sample WWVB periodically, so they're not likely to be affected (as the WWVB posting points out).

I hope WWVB doesn't make permanent changes that will affect sensitive continuous-monitoring gear like frequency standards, since making and maintaining antennas that can reliably drive those is a tough enough task already.

Frankly, I used to be concerned they're phase out WWVB as newer technologies made it increasingly irrelevant, but then along came cheap, atomic-reference clocks to save that day.

Pardon my complete absolute ignorance, but what do you use the Spectracom 8164 for? After looking one up it seems like a very large and expensive to operate desk clock...

I see one here on eBay. Is the space below the meter movement for some type of paper graph recorder? I see buttons the face which designates:

Recorder
[On/Off EXP U]

Thanks

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Spectracom-8164-WWVB-NBS-Receiver-Disciplined-Oscillator-/220969915898

Yes, the chart recorder has either been removed from the one pictured, or it's out of paper. I can't really tell from the pictures, and it's been so long since I changed paper in mine, I can't remember what it looks like in front.

BTW, they're not that large either, smaller than, say, an HP 5335A. They make good napping spots for cats too.

There's been a lot of discussion on this on the Time-Nuts mailing list. WWVB is moving to a BPSK modulation format which breaks most phase-comparing receivers. According to John Forster:

The HP 117 and Fluke 207 will not work.
Many Spectracoms will not work. A few will. See their web site
The Stanford 620 will not, I believe. Some models may.

The new modulation is compatible with consumer "atomic clock" receivers, but not most of the existing precision phase comparison receivers. The new BPSK scheme is intended to improve the reliability of the WWVB time signal for small consumer "atomic clock" receivers on the east coast of the US. See the paper "New Improved System for WWVB Broadcast", Lowe, J., et al, presented at the 43rd Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Meeting.

Apparently not all the details are disclosed in the paper, and there is a private company preparing silicon and patents for receivers based on the new modulation scheme:
http://www.xtendwave.com/xtendwave-awar ... ments.html
http://www.xtendwave.com/atomictimekeeping.html

It's time to ditch your HP 117 and move on to a GPS-disciplined time reference for your lab.

Yep, they are moving to the new format, and your 60 kHz standard is toast without an adapter which may or may not be produced and which may or may not be affordable by hobbyists. It's probably cheaper to pitch your Spectracom and switch to a GPS discplined oscillator for your lab, using a Trimble Thunderbolt from eBay.

Oh boy. Looks like E-Bay and hamfests will will be flooded with piles of Spectracoms and other WWVB receivers just after the last load of useless LORAN-C timebase receivers that no one could get rid of hit the bottom of the dumpsters.

-Mark-

It will be like the Channel 52 boxes that were seen from time to time at the swap meet. They weren't worth the epoxy used seal the circuitry in a brick after the demise of that scrambled tv station...

Oh look here is a Loran-C for 3 bux on eBay!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SI-TEX-KODEN-LO ... 0742822641

Quoting John Cleese:
"We've already got one and it's very, very nice.!"
I just bought one and have it up and running in less than two hours time for under $200.00. The "Lady Heather" software had some screen size issues with one monitor but I am not running it on that PC anyway. The readme file explains starting with various screen sizes, COM port choice, etc... I should be good to go for a few more years. I had to provide an antenna and power supply (+/-12v, +5v). Life is good.

73 de KB5SHC