{"id":85,"date":"2016-05-01T23:59:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T23:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/?p=85"},"modified":"2016-05-27T05:50:53","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T05:50:53","slug":"jt65-its-about-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/2016\/05\/01\/jt65-its-about-time\/","title":{"rendered":"JT65 – It’s About TIME"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 1, 2016<\/p>\n

As of late, I have been deeply engrossed with learning more about the digital modes.\u00a0 The latest, most intriguing for me is JT65.\u00a0 The idea of being able to transfer information with signals so weak that they are below the noise floor is amazing to me.\u00a0 Yes – I’m aware that it is a very slow mode but I’m still very interested.<\/p>\n

One key element to JT65 is that timing is a key factor in the protocol working properly.\u00a0 One party of the QSO sends on the even minutes and the other on the odd minutes, each starting at 1 second into the new minute and transmitting for 48 seconds.\u00a0 Following that there is a decoding \/ translation period and then the process repeats all over again.<\/p>\n

\"JT65<\/a>Before jumping into a new “thing” whatever that “thing” might be I research it fully to make sure that I can do all the things that are necessary in order to be successful in the endeavor.\u00a0 When it comes to JT65, before today, I had all the bases covered except for one.\u00a0 Before now, I’ve never needed\u00a0 had to deal with the timing aspects of JT65.\u00a0 I had to figure out how to be able to set my computer clock precisely enough for the protocol and keep it that way.\u00a0 After a bit of digging I found the following tid-bits that I thought would be wise to put on my Amateur Radio Blog. I think this information might be useful for somebody starting into JT65 but also, and maybe more importantly (depending on your perspective)… for myself…\u00a0 If I don’t do this and I go a year or longer without messing around with any of this stuff I’ll forget it and have to start all over reinventing what I already figured out.<\/p>\n

Now – let’s get on with the show!<\/p>\n

Being a Windows 10 user typically means that something is NOT supported or doesn’t work.\u00a0 In this case I was very pleasantly surprised to see that I could sync my clock with an NTP Server very easily.\u00a0 Problem solved right?\u00a0 Well – maybe.\u00a0 The problem was solved right then and there if I had access to the internet wherever I am going to be operating.\u00a0 As you can tell from other posts I like to go “out” in various places and set up temporary stations “Field Day” style.\u00a0 That means I’m away from home and no WiFi.\u00a0 Often, I have connectivity through my cell phone but as of right now do not have tethering capability so no connectivity to the laptop.<\/p>\n

A bit of research put me hot on the trail of using a GPS receiver to get the time.\u00a0 This was an interesting direction and I liked it.\u00a0 The first question that came to mind was “will my GPS unit connect to my laptop”.\u00a0 It is very old and my last attempt several years ago to connect in order to updates maps was a complete waste of time.\u00a0 That was on a Windows 7 computer so I thought I’d give it another try.\u00a0 To no avail – my GPS unit will not communicate with my Windows 10 laptop either.\u00a0 On a side note I learned that I can buy that GPS unit on eBay for about $23 so that ought to tell you how old it is.<\/p>\n

Well – I don’t give up easily and decided to investigate the GPS capabilities of my cell phone.\u00a0 This was a success story!\u00a0 The old saying “There’s an App for that!” held true in this case too.\u00a0 I found an application called “Share GPS” Version 0.56, Free, and what that allowed me to do was to send GPS data (NMEA protocol) via Bluetooth to my laptop. The permissions for this app were reasonable.\u00a0 Some of the others were outlandish and unnecessary.<\/p>\n

\"Share<\/a>Here’s where I had some difficulties.\u00a0 The laptop was receiving the data but I couldn’t see that.\u00a0 I started with Google Earth. Then I found a Windows 10 Application called “GPS Satellite” and was quickly and simply able to utilize the GPS information via Bluetooth from my phone on my PC.\u00a0 This was just a test but may be something of use for other things.\u00a0 Now – on to the real task at hand.\u00a0 Synchronizing my clock from the GPS signals.<\/p>\n

\"GPS<\/a>There were several programs that I found on the net.\u00a0 One that I thought was “most” promising was actually… well… let’s just say it was just a time-suck and leave it at that.\u00a0 I looked at a few others and settled on one that is just what the doctor ordered for what I want!\u00a0 It is called BktTimeSync<\/a> by IZ2BKT.\u00a0 I am quite excited to have it installed on my laptop.<\/p>\n

\"BktTimeSync<\/a>With a GPS providing NMEA data to my laptop this program gives me Latitude, Longitude\u00a0 and Maidenhead Grid Square “WW Locator” information.\u00a0 One simple click and my pc time is synchronized with an NTP server if available and if not then GPS saves the day.\u00a0 If that was not enough, IZ2BKT added another little facet to this program that fills a need I’ve had on my “need to get” list for quite some time.\u00a0 A nifty on-screen clock that looks nice and doesn’t hog ton of resources…\u00a0 It’s a simple digital clock sans-bulky-window and has a transparent background.\u00a0 It can switch between local and GMT in literally a double-click, a single-click and a single-click. It can be set to 12 Hr or 24 Hr format and display seconds if you want or not. My desktop background is a picture of the outdoors just after sunset with a starry sky in the background.\u00a0 I was able to set the clock character color to\u00a0 white numbers it looks like this:<\/p>\n

\"BktTimeSync_Clock_2016-05-01_17-21-10\"<\/a>In manual mode, a single click will synchronize your time with the rest of the globe or you can put it automatic, leave the program running in your Systray and it will do it behind the scenes.\u00a0 In manual, after it is used to sync it can be shut down or allow to run in the background for future manual or automatic synchronizations.<\/p>\n

In terms of what I’ve said about BktTimeSync I’d say that this is all pretty high praise coming from me.\u00a0 I’m pretty tough when it comes to singing praises of software.\u00a0 Just to be clear… No – I’m not getting anything out of such a glowing review.\u00a0 I’d also say that there is some room for improvement as well.\u00a0 I may be mistaken but do not see any way to change the format of the Long\/Lat and only see a way to display metric units for altitude and the user interface is a bit crowded.\u00a0 Notice that I said that there is room for “improvement” and that these are not “negatives” in my opinion!\u00a0 This is an amazing piece of software!<\/p>\n

I will be moving onward and upward in my JT65 quest and hopefully will find the inspiration to post about it here.<\/p>\n

73 to All!
\nKE7TVZ Signing Off.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 1, 2016<\/p>\n

As of late, I have been deeply engrossed with learning more about the digital modes. The latest, most intriguing for me is JT65. The idea of being able to transfer information with signals so weak that they are below the noise floor is amazing to me. Yes – I’m aware that it is a very slow mode but I’m still very interested.<\/p>\n

One key element to JT65 is that timing is a key factor in the protocol working properly. One party of the QSO sends on the even minutes and the other on the odd minutes, each starting at 1 second into the new minute and transmitting for 48 seconds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,41,13,12],"tags":[30,27,22,18,14,28,23,29,31,15,32,33,34,26,17,21,36,25,37,19,16,20,24,35],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-modes","category-front-page-slider","category-global-positioning-system","category-jt65","tag-bkttimesync","tag-bluetooth","tag-cell-phone","tag-clock","tag-digital-mode","tag-google-earth","tag-gps-receiver","tag-gps-satellite","tag-iz2bkt","tag-jt65","tag-latitude","tag-longitude","tag-maidenhead-grid-square","tag-nmea-protocol","tag-noise-floor","tag-ntp-server","tag-on-screenclock","tag-share-gps","tag-synchronization","tag-timing","tag-weak-signall","tag-windows-10","tag-windows-7","tag-ww-locator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ke7tvz.com\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}