Ham Radio & Linux - Sync your IC-7300 clock to your computer with Python

KB9RLW is demonstrating modern day amateur radio by taking advantage of the computer interface the Icom radios come with these days and "home brewing" a solution. Kudos! I don't know why I didn't think of doing this!

Accurate time was important to hams a few years ago before the logging requirement went away (within a minute). Then there was a period where time wasn't all that important. Then Joe Taylor comes along and accurate time is important again (within a second).

When there was a threat of NIST zeroing out the budget of the (getting old) NIST-F2 clock using the (even older NIST-F1) clock as a backup last year, there was a frenzy of postings about it. The NIST-F2 is the most stable (of the two) with a drift of less than 4 nanoseconds per year. (That's pretty darn accurate!)

The Navy has dozens and dozens of atomic clocks syncing up with each other and GPS satellites (with at least two atomic clocks on each satellite for redundancy/error checking). All together, their drift is a few picoseconds per year. That's about 1,000 times more accurate than NIST.

So I set up an NTP server (using Fedora) and hooked it up to a GPSDO with a PPS. Now I point all my other computers to it. My time hack is within a couple of milliseconds now.

Every once in a while, I saw the clock on my 7300 off by a minute or so. And of course, twice a year, I'd have to add an hour to it or subtract an hour from it. And if you disconnect power for a week or so, it loses time because the clock battery is a lithium and needs power applied to keep it charged.

Now, KB9RLW shows us how to take our computer time and put it into a 7300 without having to wait for the second hand to hit the top of the clock or the beep from WWV. I think that's absolutely fantastic!

Now, instead of trying to transcribe his code from the video, I'm looking for it to copy/paste somewhere on the net. Or, maybe I'll just write my own code. Although my 7300 doesn't need accurate time to USNO resolution... why not?

Using a u-blox USB GPS receiver works and is within a second (no PPS, data transfer time...), so that would be good for most. Pointing your computer to windows.time would be good for most also.

 

https://github.com/loughkb/IC-7300-time-sync

 

Heck, my radio doesn't even have a clock! Interesting video though.

 

I'm not sure if the 7300 is the same as the 7610 as far as the time is concerned, but I have my 7610 hooked to the internet using the ethernet jack on the back. The clock is spot on, but if it does need updating, I just hit the NTP update button in the menu and it's done. No need for any of this.

 

My 7300 never needs adjusting. It is always right on. I never really use it however. I don,t even change it for Daylight saving. I always have my computer running next to my rig so by habit, I use the clock on the computer. I do all paper logging except for contesting. I later manually enter contacts into eqsl, except for contesting which is a compute file upload. I just checked the clock now, it is still right on. Also note, I leave the radio off when not in use, but leave the power supply on always.

 

Hi Jeff,

It's mindful to recall the saying, a man with one watch knows the time while a man with two watches is never sure. Your Timex is more accurate than the KX3 relative to....what? The NIST clock (WWV's reference)? 73

 

Just checked my 7300, it was 30 seconds slow. Can't remember when I last set it but has to have been several months.
Also have a QCX-20 with the QLG1 GPS receiver (from QRP LABS) that sets the clock, calibrates the oscillator to provide accurate frequency, provide a 1pps signal to keep in sync with the GPS. And beyond that, sets the grid square in the rig for use with WSPR.
Dimension 4 keeps my computer within just a few hundredths of a second. FT8 compares received signals to my computer time and most stations I hear are within 0.3 seconds of my computer time.
Been obsessed with time accuracy since my Novice days back in 1962.
Larry KB0R

 

It's a fine program. I'll admit I don't use it that much, but I do boot it up once in a while to sync the 7300's clock.

 

The 7300 has no Ethernet port.

 

Well that explains that then. Carry on.

 

It's in the video description. A link to the github repo for the code and a raw download link.

And thanks for the kind words. 73

 

And sure, have at it! = https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-f.../wwv-and-wwvh-digital-time-code-and-broadcast

 

I've found the script useful. The battery in my 7300 has been dead for a good while. It will not stay charged even after hours of charging. I did have a little trouble with multiple programs fighting over who has dibs on the COM port. I resolved this by adding a try/except block to trap the error if the port is already reserved by another program which lets it exit gracefully. Many thanks and 73

 

A lot of folks are using Meinberg NTP (Network Time Protocol) to time sync their PC clocks for FT8 and JS8Call modes. You can download it at https://www.meinbergglobal.com/english/sw/ntp.htm . I use Dimension 4 version 5.3 as my time sync program because I frequently operate JS8Call. I like JS8call better than FT8 because you can actually have a conversation using JS8Call instead of just swapping callsign, RST, and 73 and you're done like you do with FT8 mode. It seems a lot more personal to me having the abilities that JS8Call has. You can read all about Dimension 4 at http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/ and you can download the installation file for Windows at http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/d4time531.msi