N3BKV's Ham Radio Hacks

Interesting Amateur/Ham Radio projects and reviews

  • How To Get Precise Time Outside Your Shack

    Often when I decide to do Parks on the Air (POTA), I just grab my gear and go forgetting to sync my laptop’s time.  When I get to the park, sometimes my system clock is 5-30 seconds off which means I’m not able to do FT8.

    I have found some inexpensive solutions to help fix this issue.  First, you’ll need a GPS dongle to capture accurate time signals.  These dongles are great and can get time almost anywhere, if they have a good view of the sky. 

    Here is the one I like since I can move it around if I need to and can keep it away from my radio to reduce RFI. It is called the “VFAN USB GPS Receiver Antenna Gmouse for Laptop PC Car Marine Navigation Magnetic Base” and available on Amazon for $20. 

    If you want something less expensive ($12) and smaller, I’ve heard good things about this unit (although I have never used it) – “HiLetgo VK172 G-Mouse USB GPS/GLONASS USB GPS Receiver for Windows 10/8/7/VISTA/XP”.

    Next, you’ll need software to allow your computer to interface with the dongle and update its clock.  Here are a couple of options that I’ve tested. The first one is free and it is called BktTimeSync (https://www.maniaradio.it/en/bkttimesync.html).  

    Since there are a lot of ads on the download page, here is the direct download link – (https://www.maniaradio.it/OldVersion/elenco.php?nomefile=BktTimeSync%2FBktTimeSync_1.20.6.exe).

    After downloading you’ll need to find the COM port of your GPS dongle. In your Windows search box (bottom left of your screen), type “Device Manager” and press “Enter”.

    Now click on the “>” next to Ports (COM & LPT)

    Look for something like USB Serial Device and note the COM number (in this case 9).

    If you have a lot of devices and are not sure which one it might be, you can unplug the GPS dongle and see what disappears to find the COM port number for it.

    Now go into BktTimeSync and adjust the COM port to the correct number and set the speed to 9600 baud.

    You should then see your GPS coordinates show up if you have the right COM port.

    Next, make sure you click GPS enable and turn off NTP. 

    Now click “Sync Now”.

    and you should see a successful GPS sync notification.

    Next, you’ll want to set your syncing options moving forward if they are different than the default.

    For software option 2, I really like NMEATime2 since it is much simpler to use and has some cool data screens – https://www.visualgps.net/#nmeatime2-content. It is about $21 (and free for the first 30 days to try) .

    To get set up with it, you’ll need to set the COM port of your dongle.

    What is nice here is you do not need to use the Device Manager since the program shows you the descriptions of each COM port in setup dialog box.

    Pick the correct port and set it to 9600 baud.

    You should see a “Locked” indication and the program will now automatically sync and update your computer’s clock for you on an ongoing basis.

    You can now click the “GPS Status” tab to see what satellites it is using.

    As well as see some info on the accuracy of your computer’s clock on the “Loop Status” tab.

    That’s all there is to it for you to have accurate time out in the field. Have fun at your next POTA knowing that your time is exact!

    Product links:

     https://www.amazon.com/Receiver-Antenna-Gmouse-Laptop-Navigation/dp/B073P3Y48Q

    https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-G-Mouse-GLONASS-Receiver-Windows/dp/B01MTU9KTF

    Originally published at hamradiohacks.blogspot.com

  • Wifi Network Clock Review: Great Features

    I have many clocks in my home which all seem to show different time no matter how often I try to sync them to an accurate time source.  I was looking for something inexpensive that I could have in the living room that would auto correct itself often so I had one clock I could depend on there.  

    I decided to stay away from radio clocks that needed to be able to receive WWV to reset themselves as I knew that would work maybe once a week, if I was lucky. I used to have a WWV correcting watch and I had to remember to put by a window at night to get updates. Ideally, I wanted something that would reset hourly so it could be accurate to within a second or two.  

    After searching around, I found this clock on Amazon and thought I’d give it a try.  It can be set to synchronize over wifi with any time server worldwide or even a local one if you have your own NTP server. It is customizable via a web browser to display any time zone (including UTC – great for logging), show the date in rotation, set the brightness, etc.

    I have had the clock running for a couple of weeks now and it is working well. The display is bright and easy to read from across the room and whenever I check its accuracy, it is always within about 1 second of the correct time.  

    The only issue I have with it is the open wifi hotspot used for initial setup can never be turned off.  Although the range of the hotspot is limited, it is still a security risk since someone can hop through the clock and on to your home wifi if you are not careful.  It is also possible to look at the HTML code of the clock’s setup page and see your wifi password which is a bad design choice that was made by the manufacturer. 

    However, there are a few ways you can protect yourself here:

    1. Create a separate wifi network with internet access and limit it so that only the clock can join it.  This is the solution that I use. I have locked down the “clock” network so only this unit’s MAC address can connect to it. The worst case is someone can play with my clock settings but I feel it is reasonably secure for me based on the clock’s open wifi hotspot range.

    2. If you do not have a guest network where you put all your devices that are less secure, you could set one up and put this clock on there.  This is a good way to protect your computers from anyone coming on to your network via a less secure device like a doorbell, printer, lightbulb or other questionable gadget. This is not as secure as option 1 but simpler to set up. The main problem is your password being exposed via the clock’s setup page.

    This budget clock hits a sweet spot between features and price—ideal for general use around the house or logging in the shack. It is reasonably well built but you must be comfortable with its obvious wifi security hole and make sure to lock it down. 

    Product link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DR2G868Y

    Originally published at hamradiohacks.blogspot.com