Notebook of Time and Frequency Experiments
I'm using several USB "dongle" SDR sticks from RTL-SDR.com. These nifty $20 devices can receive from 100 kHz to above 1700 MHz. They have a low noise amplifier in the front end that is adjustable from 0 to about 50…
I've continued processing the data generated from software-defined-radio recordings I made during the 2017 solar eclipse at my fairly isolated and low-RF-noise location on Beaver Island, Michigan (45 38 38 N, 85 29 24 W, grid square EN75gp). The nearest…
I set up a smaller version of my mad-scientist stuff at our cottage on Beaver Island, Michigan (45 38 38 N, 85 29 24 W, grid square EN75gp), to record the RF spectrum before, during, and after the eclipse on…
It wasn't too hard for the HamSci guys to convince me to bring a Cesium frequency standard to my portable location in Michigan to drive the HPSDR receiver that will do band recordings for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse HF…
I was fussing about signal generator output accuracy because I wanted to calibrate my HPSDR Hermes software defined radio ("SDR") so that I could calculate the absolute power input in dBm, assuming a 50 ohm load impedance) based on the…
Just when you thought it couldn't get more boring (reference my last post about signal generator calibration... I did all these careful calibrations of my signal generator to check its accuracy and linearity. Everything looked good, except that the signal…
UPDATE: it turns out that my "best" power meter was actually about 0.5 dB off. See my later post for further details. I want to calibrate my software defined radio receiver prior to doing a bunch of recordings of the…
Several years ago I designed a little circuit board called the T2-Mini that provides life support for one of Tom Van Baak's very wonderful picDIV PIC-based frequency dividers. The idea is to convert the 1, 2.5, 5, or 10 MHz…
TAPR TICC Rev. D My latest project has turned out to be my most complex (so far...), involving both new-fangled hardware and quite a bit of software, but it's now finished and working well. Meet the TICC, an Arduino Mega…
My FTS-1050A OCXO has thumbwheels to set the EFC, which makes it convenient to use this frequency standard to generate slightly offset frequencies. I measured the frequency with various EFC settings (compared to an HP 5061B-004 Cesium) and these plots…