[ntp:questions] Re: Spectracom 8170 question..

David L. Mills mills at udel.edu
Fri Aug 12 21:49:57 UTC 2005


Hal,

The antennas are about 200 feet away form the machine room and atop an 
adjacent utility building. A check with a portable radio gave no 
comfort; RFI levels are atrocious.

I have a Netclock/1 WWVB receiver at home working okay, but I also have 
three 2200-VA UPSes, one less than four feet from the antenna. I 
conclude that some UPSes radiate on 60 kHz and some don't.

Over the years RFI on 60 kHz has increased even without the UPS problem. 
Several years ago I traced it to conductive interference on the power 
line. Two engineers form the local power company came to the same 
conclusion. Put a 60-kHz radio near a power line and it goes crazy; move 
it 100 feet away and comforting silence. I could clearly see it on an 
oscilliscope connecte to the synchronous detector in the WWVB radio; it 
had a nasty modulation that made me think it a high power power inverter 
for a welding machine. We do have a Chrysler plant in town.

I called the FCC monitoring station at Laurel, MD, and asked them to 
take a look. They and the FCC Maine station concluded the radiation came 
from somewhere in Quebec, so I would have to pursue the issue with the 
State Deparment. My pals in Boston have no such WWVB problem. So much 
for the FCC monitors; I suspect they will be closed down to protect the 
BPL agenda.

As an aside, I've been at the FCC monitoring station in Washington, DC. 
An old R-390, Teletype model 12 and a plotting board with string and 
tacks. The FCC was on the way out of town last I heard. Did the last 
engineer to leave the place douse the lights? Only lawyers are allowed 
to stay.

Dave

Hal Murray wrote:
>>Schematics are at http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/database/8170/. You 
>>can find the DIPswitch, eyeball the component ID and go find it on the 
>>board. Send it T to wake it up. The * means it's not synchronized. I 
>>hope you got the antenna/preamp; it doesn't work without it. Also be 
>>aware the heavier UPSes produce so much RFI that we have had to stand 
>>down both of our 8170s.
> 
> 
> How far apart are (were) the UPSs and the 8170s?
> 
> Do the 8170s still work if you locate them somewhere nice or does the
> crap from the UPSs get back out on the power line and polute the
> whole area?  (In which case the problem could be from UPSs in
> other buildings/organizations...)
> 
> Do home size UPSs have the same problem?  Perhaps killing the
> "atomic" clocks in the rest of the house?  (The ones that set
> themselves from WWVB.)
> 




More information about the questions mailing list