Eric,
The GPS is a great idea to incorporate in the Amateur Market for this
purpose (Time Base Measurements) as well as other potential uses with the
geo-location / geo-positioning navigation capabilities of these systems as
well.
First, here is a little snapshot on my background.
I have over 20 years in Joint Special Operations in the Department of
Defense. I spent over 20 years as an mission operator with our SOF forces
(1972 to 1992) up through Desert Storm I, and I spent the last 15 years
(1992 to 2007) I have spent in industry surrounding complex technology
insertion in support of both our Government and for our Warfighters.
Currently I am the Principal Engineer, as part of the Senior Technical
Staff, for my company Aerospace Integration Corporation (AIC). Over 90
percent of our employees are former Special Operations forces (Mission
Operators, Technicians, and Engineers). We (AIC) are a primary systems
integrator for the Special Operations Forces here in Crestview Florida. Our
facilities are on the airfield at Crestview, Florida, just North of HQ Air
Force Special Operations Command (HQ AFSOC) at Hurlburt Air Force Base, in
Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
We have two 65000 square foot hangars here on the airfield, and we perform a
variety of complex Navigation, Communications, Electronic Warfare, Weapons
Integration, and new technologies such as Machine to Machine Situational
Awareness (M2MSA) systems, on a variety of the SOF aircraft currently being
used in Theater. These are the AC-130 GUNSHIPS, MC-130 COMBAT TALON
aircraft, MH-53J PAVE LOW helicopters, and an entire range of other SOF
aircraft assets.
The use of integrated GPS is widespread as integrated with a variety of
other Navigation an Sensor systems as well as integrated operations with our
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) such as Predators, and a host of other
systems.
For the Amateur market with the newer technology radio systems (ORION II,
SDR-1000, K2 Elecraft, OMNI VII, and other upcoming software defined radios,
it only makes sense to not only industry standard interfaces such as
Ethernet, USB II, and GPS receivers. Not only does the GPS time reference
have multiple uses with the Cesium clock time bases on the satellite
constellations, but also it would provide Lat / Long position information
for fixed stations needing accurate Beam Heading information automatically
to other world wide stations. This could be an automatic component of the
different software applications that provide accurate Beam Heading and
Distance information for working long path, or direct path to call sign
prefixes or Zones anywhere in the world. Also, it would provide instant
positional mobility for portable rigs that were put in mobile installations
or deployed in dispersed disaster areas such as down the street from me in
New Orleans (Site of the Katrina Devastation).
So, I am all in favor of future integration of GPS navigation and time based
systems into the Amateur Radio systems fixed and/or mobile as well as the
networked interfaces such as 10/100Base T Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, USB,
RS-232, and the different video formats such as SVGA, NTSC, DVI, SMPTE 292,
MPEG 2, MPEG4, and others for providing more integrated capabilities to the
future Amateur Radio community called on to support both Home Land Security
or Home Land Defense communications and networking augmentation or when
providing support for our classic disaster support model as was used heavily
in Hurricane Katrina.
Maybe, we could get TEN TEC or other manufacturers to look at future
integration options of these newer technology radios with GPS systems such
as the Garmin family or others, to include Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)
as either part of the amateur radio software suites, or custom applications
for integrated use of GPS augmentation with the Color Display as a menu
page.
I don't have much time right now to play radio, as currently, our company
AIC is on a high Operations Tempo (24 x 7) supporting our Warfighters over
in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN with a lot of technology insertion in support of the
Global War on Terror (GWOT). It is not unusual for our personnel to have 100
hour work weeks which includes weekends, as the Ops tempo is so high. And
with the recent build up , we are only getting more busy.
So, I vote for incorporating more of the Network Centric / IP Based / GPS
based technologies into our Amateur Radio Market. This would make our
support even more valuable to the Government agencies that we support either
in a time of war, a National Disaster, or a future Terrorist Attack on our
Homeland.
Thanks,
Jim
K4PV
-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com]On
Behalf Of Ron Castro
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 10:57 PM
To: eric@k3na.org; Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion/O2 Drift Problem-who is interested in a fix?
OK...I'll pass that on the INRAD folks...
Ron Castro
Chief Technical Officer
Results Radio, LLC
N6IE
www.N6IE.com
(Formerly N6AHA)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Scace K3NA" <eric@k3na.org>
To: "Ron Castro" <ronc@sonic.net>; "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment"
<tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 8:52 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Orion/O2 Drift Problem-who is interested in a fix?
> Ron --
>
> I would prefer to be able to lock the Orion's master oscillator (with
> a long averaging interval) to an external GPS-based 10 MHz standard --
> without degrading the very clean phase noise characteristics of the
> radio. W9AC's note sounds quite interesting. But the devil is in the
> details.
>
> In response to those asking why this level of accuracy is useful:
>
> a) phase-locked receivers can be helpful when comparing signals between
> two antenna systems (e.g., diversity reception);
> b) when one is crowded the edge of a band, it's good to have confidence
> as to one's actual location.
> c) crystals shift slightly when initially powered up (a permanent
> change). The change accumulates as power gets cycled on-off and the
> radio's calibration can become far off. Between five Orions used at one
> of the local contest stations, the frequencies are scattered over
> several hundred Hz after a few years of operation.
>
> 73,
> -- Eric K3NA
>
> on 07 Jan 30 Tue 01:21 Ron Castro said the following:
>> I exchanged e-mails this week with one of the new owners of INRAD with a
>> suggestion about marketing an low-drift OCXO mod to fix the warm-up drift
>> problem on the Orions and Orion II's, and he wants to know what level of
>> interest there might be in such a product. The stock radios drift about
>> 20 Hz (15 MHz WWV) in the first 10 minutes, then very slowly correct
>> themselves to the starting point over a period of about 3 hours, plus
>> they tend to drift with shack temperature. I often hear Orions on the
>> air, especially on the TT Sunday net, and very often they are 20 Hz low
>> in frequency. The fan mod on my website mitigates the problem to some
>> degree, but it's only a band-aid.
>>
>> In my opinion, a mod like this would simple (a direct replacement of the
>> existing 4-pin TCXO) and would be a welcomed improvement that would make
>> the radio function better as well as bring a higher resale value, much
>> the way many of the other fine INRAD after-market mods do.
>>
>> If you have even a remote interest in this mod I would like to hear from
>> you, either here or off-list! Note that I have no connection with INRAD
>> or Ten Tec other than being a customer.
>>
>> Ron N6IE
>> ron@n6ie.com
>> www.N6IE.com
>> (Formerly N6AHA)
>> _______________________________________________
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>> TenTec@contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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