[UK-CONTEST] Methods of updating the PC clock?

[Jon Kåre Hellan]

On 23.01.2011 16:47, G3UUT wrote:
> The recent debate about contest start and finish times and a wish to
> improve my shack technology (from using the speaking clock) has prompted
> me to ask the following;
>
> 1. Somebody mentioned using internet time servers.  I've never been able
> to get these to work.  Is there a simple and foolproof way of doing it
> from the UK? (I'm not very PC literate).
The Unix world uses NTP (Network Time Protocol). As most my machines are 
Linux, so I've got it in my fingers, I also use
it on my shack computer, which is Windows 7. For Linux, you get NTP from 
your distribution. For Windows, get it from Meinberg
http://www.meinberg.de/english/sw/ntp.htm. I found it easy to set up, 
and I don't have much sysadmin experience on Windows.

On a well behaved backbone network, NTP gives you better than 10 ms 
precision. Out on the consumer internet, it will be worse,
but usually better than 100 ms. More than good enough for contesting.

> 2.  I've seen these surplus Trimble GPS frequency standards available on
> the internet
Does anybody know of a relatively simple software/hardware way of also
> using the GPS time output, which they presumably must also have
> available, to lock up the PC clock?
>
You can configure NTP to use a GPS reference. A radio clock can also be 
used. Configuring the software isn't hard. The fiddly part
is the wiring.  A GPS/NTP disciplined computer clock will be within 10 
microseconds of correct time. But you don't need that for
contesting!
73
Jon LA4RT, Trondheim, Norway

> Thanks
> John G3UUT
>
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