Thunderbolt Question
I have been using a surplus Thunderbolt for about six months, and it seemed
to be working fine. In January 2012, a message came up in yellow, (LEAP
PENDING!), I don't know what this means, but since it didn't go away on Feb
28, must not be leap year related. About a week ago I got a Holdover: xx
secs, message. It was a new figure in yellow. Yesterday the Thunderbolt
stopped working correctly, there were no satellites found. I tried Lady
Heather, and Trimble Studio without success. I finally got the unit back
in service with a program called "Tboltmon.exe". After it was running for a
couple of hours I restarted Lady Heather. This morning I again have
"Holdover: 50 secs".
Does it sound normal, or is this unit headed for the junk box? Sorry, I am
not very technical about this type of electronics. You can see a snapshot
of Lady Heather at: http://wa6rzw.homelinux.net/addon/fmt/fmt_2.php Any
comments or suggestions would be appreciated. 73 Ed, WA6RZW
Maybe it's the antenna, or a short in the cable (water in the coax) or a
nearby transmitters that is jamming the GPS signal. The simplest way to
diagnose the problem is by swapping parts. Is your antenna in a good
location with a direct view of the entire sky?
On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Ed Mersich wa6rzw@comcast.net wrote:
I have been using a surplus Thunderbolt for about six months, and it seemed
to be working fine. In January 2012, a message came up in yellow, (LEAP
PENDING!), I don't know what this means, but since it didn't go away on Feb
28, must not be leap year related. About a week ago I got a Holdover: xx
secs, message. It was a new figure in yellow. Yesterday the Thunderbolt
stopped working correctly, there were no satellites found. I tried Lady
Heather, and Trimble Studio without success. I finally got the unit back
in service with a program called "Tboltmon.exe". After it was running for
a
couple of hours I restarted Lady Heather. This morning I again have
"Holdover: 50 secs".
Does it sound normal, or is this unit headed for the junk box? Sorry, I am
not very technical about this type of electronics. You can see a snapshot
of Lady Heather at: http://wa6rzw.homelinux.net/addon/fmt/fmt_2.php Any
comments or suggestions would be appreciated. 73 Ed, WA6RZW
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--
Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
There is a leap second waiting for June/July this year.
On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 6:16 PM, Chris Albertson
albertson.chris@gmail.comwrote:
Maybe it's the antenna, or a short in the cable (water in the coax) or a
nearby transmitters that is jamming the GPS signal. The simplest way to
diagnose the problem is by swapping parts. Is your antenna in a good
location with a direct view of the entire sky?
On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Ed Mersich wa6rzw@comcast.net wrote:
I have been using a surplus Thunderbolt for about six months, and it
seemed
to be working fine. In January 2012, a message came up in yellow, (LEAP
PENDING!), I don't know what this means, but since it didn't go away on
Feb
28, must not be leap year related. About a week ago I got a Holdover: xx
secs, message. It was a new figure in yellow. Yesterday the Thunderbolt
stopped working correctly, there were no satellites found. I tried Lady
Heather, and Trimble Studio without success. I finally got the unit
back
in service with a program called "Tboltmon.exe". After it was running
for
a
couple of hours I restarted Lady Heather. This morning I again have
"Holdover: 50 secs".
Does it sound normal, or is this unit headed for the junk box? Sorry, I
am
not very technical about this type of electronics. You can see a
snapshot
of Lady Heather at: http://wa6rzw.homelinux.net/addon/fmt/fmt_2.php Any
comments or suggestions would be appreciated. 73 Ed, WA6RZW
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
--
Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
To unsubscribe, go to
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
and follow the instructions there.
I have been using a surplus Thunderbolt for about six months, and it seemed
to be working fine. In January 2012, a message came up in yellow, (LEAP
PENDING!), I don't know what this means, but since it didn't go away on Feb
28, must not be leap year related.
Hi Ed,
Right, in this case the "LEAP" refers to a leap second, not a leap
year. When the next leap second occurs this summer, the yellow
warning will go away.
As you know, leap years are used to keep "days" and "years" in
sync, where a day is earth rotation (about its axis) and a year is
earth revolution (around the sun). Last one was: Feb 29, 2012.
Similarly, leap seconds are used to keep "seconds" and "days" in
sync, where a second is now defined by atomic standards and a
day is earth rotation. Next one is: 19:59:60 EDT, Jun 30, 2012.
Keeping clocks in sync is a significant part of the timekeeping
world. For example, with quartz and GPS it's easy to "discipline"
quartz in order to steer it closer to GPS. This is done by making
slight changes in quartz EFC voltage to change the frequency, to
close the differential time error.
But when it comes to orbits and planets, objects too large for us
to change their rate, objects which have no EFC input, we have
to resort to making artificial, bookkeeping, virtual steps in time
instead of gradual changes in physical rate.
/tvb
Ed, the message about leap pending refers to an impending leap second,
in June I think but others may know more... It will happen and the
message will go away. From your LH screen, I would say that your signal
levels are way too low. I don't know why, perhaps low antenna gain, a
badly sited antenna, even indoors maybe? I suspect the t'bolt is
working as it should.
You don't show your signal strength numbers, but here in Southern
California with a well sited -hp- antenna, I see all visible sats with
between 47 and 50 signal strength numbers and thus large circles on the
map display.
Dan
On 04/23/2012 07:01 PM, Tom Van Baak wrote:
I have been using a surplus Thunderbolt for about six months, and it
seemed
to be working fine. In January 2012, a message came up in yellow, (LEAP
PENDING!), I don't know what this means, but since it didn't go away
on Feb
28, must not be leap year related.
Hi Ed,
Right, in this case the "LEAP" refers to a leap second, not a leap
year. When the next leap second occurs this summer, the yellow
warning will go away.
As you know, leap years are used to keep "days" and "years" in
sync, where a day is earth rotation (about its axis) and a year is
earth revolution (around the sun). Last one was: Feb 29, 2012.
Similarly, leap seconds are used to keep "seconds" and "days" in
sync, where a second is now defined by atomic standards and a
day is earth rotation. Next one is: 19:59:60 EDT, Jun 30, 2012.
Keeping clocks in sync is a significant part of the timekeeping
world. For example, with quartz and GPS it's easy to "discipline"
quartz in order to steer it closer to GPS. This is done by making
slight changes in quartz EFC voltage to change the frequency, to
close the differential time error.
But when it comes to orbits and planets, objects too large for us
to change their rate, objects which have no EFC input, we have
to resort to making artificial, bookkeeping, virtual steps in time
instead of gradual changes in physical rate.
I thought someone finally put a cesium on the step motor keeping the ear
rotation. But no, free-wheeling like always. There is no order in this
universe.
Cheers,
Magnus
Not yet Marcus- that sort of technology will come right after the ftl
drive, but just before we start building a dyson sphere..........
On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 7:00 AM, Magnus Danielson
magnus@rubidium.dyndns.org wrote:
I thought someone finally put a cesium on the step motor keeping the ear
rotation. But no, free-wheeling like always. There is no order in this
universe.
Cheers,
Magnus
Ken.