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Ham Radio

Another try at a clock project

[Today’s run: 5 miles in snow and slush]

If you’ve been reading along with me for the past few years you may have noticed that I have an unfilled need for a display clock which shows accurate UTC time.

I built a GPSDO (GPS disciplined oscilator) which I could have used for that. But I didn’t do that. I built parts of a nixie display which I could have used for that. Another swing and miss.

So now I’ve ordered some parts to make a WWVB clock. You may remember that WWV is the official time and frequency broadcast on the shortwave bands. WWVB is managed by the same people but it is at 60 KHz instead of 2,500/5,000/10,000 KHz. It is a much lower frequency.

I’m ordering a Teensyduino and a sound card add-on, also a touch screen. I’ve found some source code for a clock which decodes the format of the European version of WWVB, which is slightly different. And I see some google tracks that indicate at least one person has made the conversion.

This project is related to the Teensyduino Audio Vector Network Analyzer project I built awhile ago too, using many of the same parts.

When I’m done I should have a very accurate SDR (software defined radio) UTC clock. I hope.