Anyone else finding they need to update Meinberg to resync NTP for FT8?

Steve K9ZW

Found that several of my Win10 machines were off time despite running Meinberg NTP as a service.

Upgraded reinstallation from v12 to v15 seemed to sort things out.

Noticing FT8 operators with the same off-timing, suggesting that this may have been more than just my installations.

Anyone else finding they need to update Meinberg to resync NTP for FT8?

More at: https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2021/07/23/what-time-is-it-can-you-hear-me-ft8-timing-sound-woes-and-corrections/

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Steve K9ZW

Blog: http://k9zw.wordpress.com

Mike-VA3MW

Steve

I tried Meinberg for a while, but for some reason, the service kept dying.

I ended up using NetTime and it has been flawless and much easier to get running.

https://www.timesynctool.com/

See if that helps.

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John K3MA

I gave up on the NTP software as I often found the DX stations I wanted to work more often than not were off the time standard. So I did away with NTP software and now I use TimeFudge. It is a free utility that allows you to tweak you computer time clock in any increment you wish. So I leave the PC to do it's normal default internet time updates and I start up my FT8 program of choice. The default internet time is close enough to get decodes and I look at what the DT is for most of the stations. Then I startup TimeFudge and simply enter the inverse value of the average DT. On the next decode it brings all those stations close to 0 DT.

If I see a DX station I want to work with a DT that is off I do the same but enter the inverse of the DX station DT into TimeFudge and it brings me right to the exact time of the DX station. You would be surprized at the number of times many stations have been calling a DX station that has a DT that is off and they do not get answered but as soon as I zero my time to match theirs I make a contact.

If you want to try it just look up the QRZ page for W9MDB and you will see a link to download it.

John K3MA

KD0RC

Wow... Is this the modern version of zero-beat?

Mike VE3CKO

My Meinberg NTP service seems to be ok but I'd like to try NetTime, Mike it hasn't been updated for years, which version are using? v3.14 or 3.20 test beta from what, 5 years ago?

Erik Carling EI4KF

Len: yes in a way - your comment did make me smile. JTDX has DT adjustment setting in the GUI. So it really does "zero-beat".

Mike-VA3MW

Just for a data point, WSJTx can deal with stations up to +/- 2.5 seconds (2500ms) without issue.

Your time does not have to be that critically set such that it is within milliseconds. I got this information from Joe Taylor.

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