Well, I just received my HP Z3801A GPS Clock. I cannot believe that Jim , who
is on the Hawaiian Islands, got his about a week
before me!
Anyway, I made the internal RS-422 to RS-232 changes. It took about fifteen
minutes to complete. Since I will be using a USB hub
and USB-to-RS-232 converter, I decided to make the internal change. I have
been burned too many times with these USB-to-RS-232
converters in the past. It seems like if it doesn't see the real deal, it
won't work. Otherwise, I would have used Jim's idea for
making the connection....which otherwise looks great. I had a difficult time
locating a Torx T10 screw head. It figures I had
every other size but T10. Make sure you have a T10 head before disassembling.
Regarding the internal change. I opted not use headers as Dave, AD6A used in
his on-line article. I took the cheap and dirty route
by soldering buss-bar wire links into the PC board holes. If you never
contemplate the need for RS-422, save yourself the trouble
and just add the wire links. HP made the mod very easy but it does require
board disassembly....although considering that they
spent $4K on these clocks, I am at a loss for why they just didn't add the
jumper-selectable headers anyway?
So, I am ready for prime time, but between work and house guests tonight, the
final connections to the PC will need to wait until
the weekend.
BTW, there's some ultra-high quality build material in these HP units. I felt
like I was working on a module for NASA!
I have the SatStat software which comes with the unit on a CD-ROM disk. I am
also assuming that no other changes are required on
the RX-340? In other words the RX-340 is auto-detecting of the external 10 MHz
time base?
-Paul, W9AC
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Carl Moreschi" <n4py@earthlink.net>
> To: <tentec@contesting.com>
> Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 7:30 AM
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] RX-340 and the hp GPS Freq Std.
>
>
> > Jim,
> >
> > I just ordered the HP Z3801A GPS receiver also. I'll add something in my
> > Orion software to allow you to match the Orion to the rx340's frequency on
> a
> > per band basis.
> >
> > Carl Moreschi N4PY
> > Franklinton, NC
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jim Reid" <jimr.reid@verizon.net>
> > To: <tentec@contesting.com>
> > Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 12:27 AM
> > Subject: [TenTec] RX-340 and the hp GPS Freq Std.
> >
> >
> > > Aloha,
> > >
> > > Well, the hp Z3801 GPS rcvr is humming along just fine.
> > > At this instant it is locked to five satellites, and providing
> > > GPS quality frequency standard at 10 MHz (less than
> > > 1prt in 10^ -9th, over one day average).
> > >
> > > This signal is now fed into J2, the external reference
> > > standard input port on the back panel of the 340. And,
> > > immediately, the "EXT REF" LED on the 340 front
> > > panel illuminated.
> > >
> > > Tested the accuracy using George, W5YR's, method as he
> > > described with his June 4h post to this reflector.
> > >
> > > The MixW frequency readout (there was zero sound card
> > > error, his first test check) is----no error!
> > >
> > > The MixW frequency is reading out 1000.0 ! Every now
> > > and then it will drop for a few moments to 999.9, hi.
> > >
> > > Now I know for sure where the RX-340 is tuned, hi.
> > > Wonder if there is a way to somehow calibrate the
> > > Orion against the 340; maybe via Carl's software.
> > > His Orion control programs has a "Calibrate"
> > > function, but pending serial port "fixes" by Ten
> > > Tec that feature is not yet functional. But we will
> > > see.........
> > >
> > > Just feeling delighted about the performance of my
> > > super "fine car and it's speedometer", to borrow
> > > one of George's analogies, hi.
> > >
> > > 73, Jim KH7M
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > TenTec mailing list
> > > TenTec@contesting.com
> > > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TenTec mailing list
> > TenTec@contesting.com
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>
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