Time-Nuts -- Precise Time and Frequency for Amateurs
Description
Time-Nuts™ is a mailing list for amateurs who are interested in precise Time & Frequency. Topics include stability of quartz oscillators, measurements of rubidium and cesium atomic clocks, using WWVB, Loran-C, and GPS for long-term comparisons.
Most of the members are hams or electronics hobbyists. Topics also include acquisition, repair, and operation of surplus electronic instruments related to precise time; nanoseconds; picoseconds; results of homebrew hardware and software T&F projects, etc.
Please join if you have questions or expertise to add to the group.
Getting Started with Amateur Time & Frequency
If you have an interest in precise time & frequency or are getting the "time bug" here are some suggestions:
- Join the time-nuts mailing list.
- Ask questions; do experiments; share your results.
- Get a feel for the instruments and test equipment used in this field. Search eBay for words like: cesium, rubidium, quartz oscillator, frequency counter, frequency standard, phase comparator, 1pps, etc.
- Look for surplus electronics by companies like: Austron, Bliley, BNC (Berkeley Nucleonics Corp), Datum, Efratom, FEI (Frequency Electronics Inc), FTS (Frequency & Time Systems), GenRad (General Radio), HP (Hewlett-Packard)/Agilent, Kinemetrics, Odetics, Oscillatek, Oscilloquartz, Ovenaire, Quartzlock, Spectracom, SRS (Stanford Research Systems), Sulzer, Symmetricom, Temex, Tracor, Trak, Truetime, Vectron, Wenzel, Zyfer
- Visit amateur Time & Frequency web sites:
- LeapSecond.com (Tom Van Baak)
- www.niceties.com/time.html (Doug Hogarth)
- prc68.com/I/timefreq.shtml (Brooke Clarke)
- www.febo.com/time-freq (John Ackermann)
- www.rt66.com/~shera (Brooks Shera)
- www.qsl.net/zl1bpu/PRECISION (Murry Greenman)
- www.thegleam.com/ke5fx (John Miles)
- www.ko4bb.com/Timing (Didier Juges)
- phk.freebsd.dk/hacks (Poul-Henning Kamp)
- www.efos3.com (Ole Petter Ronningen) "Time-nuttery 101"
- Find op/svc manuals: KO4BB's Manuals Repository
- See Didier's wiki: KO4BB Wiki Home Page
- Study John Vig's Introduction to Quartz Frequency Standards
- alternate location to John Vig Tutorial if ieee.org is broken: Vig-tutorial8.5.6.3-Oct2014.ppt - Read some T&F books: www.LeapSecond.com/pages/books
- Have a quick look at the NIST Time and Frequency from A to Z - Glossary
- Read anything Bill Riley has written Hamilton Technical Services
- Read papers, presentations, books by Enrico Rubiola Enrico Rubiola Publications
- Browse NIST Time and Frequency Publication Database
- See the WIRED magazine article on Time Hackers and (photos)
- Enjoy historical information at Frequency Control History
- Find app notes at commercial T&F sites: CNS GPStime Symmetricom TSC CTS
- See government laboratory sites: NIST USNO NPL PTB JPL NRC IEN ITU BIPM IERS EFTF PTTI FCS
Searching the archives
The Time-Nuts mailing list archive is located at: http://lists.febo.com/pipermail/time-nuts_lists.febo.com.Most users simply use google to search the archives; do this by adding site:febo.com to your search word(s).
History of Time-Nuts
In the pre-web 1990s Tom Clark set up a gps-timing mailing list at NASA for those interested in his pioneering work with the Motorola Oncore-series GPS receiver. That list was an inspirational example of one man freely sharing a wealth of experience and information with a group of interested GPS timing newbies. The list was specific to his home-brew TAC hardware (now TAC-2) and SHOWTIME software (now TAC32). The list moved to TACGPS and is still around but quiet (now hosted by TAPR).
However, there were other precise time & frequency topics not covered by tacgps. Over the years several of us — tvb, DougH, StanP, CorbyD, JohnA, BrookeC — were exchanging private emails that I thought deserved wider audience, participation, and archiving. So in 2001 time-nuts began. It was once cesium-nuts at Yahoo, then time-nuts here at LeapSecond.com, then John Ackermann graciously offered to administer and host it on his site so that's where it is today. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Return to LeapSecond.com home page,
or Museum of Time & Frequency,
or Museum of HP Clocks.
Comments/questions to tvb.