Raspberry Pi NTP Server

I run a number of applications such as WSPR which require accurate timing. PC clocks are very poor at keeping accurate time and rather than rely on an internet time source, I have run my own NTP server based on a Garmin GPS unit for some years. This is connected to a computer running Windows XP which takes the GPS data and the PPS signal to provide a very accurate time.

As this system is now many years old, I have been looking for an alternative solution and found a build using a Raspberry Pi and a GPS.

I have also been wanting to play with the Raspberry Pi so this looked like an ideal project, so I ordered the parts last week and completed over the weekend.

I must make clear that none of this is my own original work. I followed the instructions and downloads from:

David Taylor at this link: http://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/Raspberry-Pi-NTP.html#trimble

The download and information from: http://ntpi.openchaos.org/downloads/ and http://ava.upuaut.net/?p=612

And the GPS add-on board from here: http://ava.upuaut.net/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_60&product_id=95

I would like to thank them for the information, downloads and GPS board they have made available to create an incredibly simple to construct and cheap NTP server.

The first stage was connecting the GPS board to the Raspberry Pi. This was simply a matter of plugging the two units together using the GPIO pins. An antenna is then connected to the GPS board.

The following photo shows the Raspberry Pi with the GPS board added:

The add on GPS board is at top left with the cable attached to the GPS antenna.

After downloading the image, this was written to a new SD card using Win32DiskImager.

The SD card was inserted in the Raspberry Pi, power connected and the system came up and running as an NTP server.

To monitor time on my computers I use NTP Time Server Monitor by Meinberg. The following picture shows the Time Server Monitor screen on one of my PCs:

!92.168.1.85 is the new Raspberry Pi NTP server and 192.168.1.5 is the original NTP server on the Windows XP machine.

Really remarkable how simple it was to put this project together and my thanks to those who had put together the image, instructions and made available a compatible GPS board for all this to work so easily.

Also a good start with the Raspberry Pi, a remarkable little computer which seems to offer no end of possibilities for building simple applications to perform specific functions.

Conditions seem to be improving on 10m recently. The following is a snapshot of the map from wsprnet.org yesterday evening showing where my signal had been heard.



This is running 5w to a very small random length of wire, hidden within some conifer trees, fed via an auto tuner.

Not much activity recently, mainly due to work. One JT65 contact with K8QZ on Friday evening.

10m Conditions and WSPR

Conditions on 10m have been very poor for some time and for this stage in the sunspot cycle there should be some improvement. Looking back on my logbook for the similar point in the last cycle I was working DX across the world, but not this time.

I run a WSPR beacon when I am at home to monitor 10m and hopefully catch any good conditions, however the following screen capture from http://wsprnet.org/drupal/ is typical of the distances I have been achieving:

 

My WSPR system consists of an IC706 MkIIG running 5W on 10m to a small Inverted L wire antenna.

 

I get the impression that the peak in the current sunspot cycle is not going to be so good.

 

Regarding recent activity, I have been on JT65 on 20m quite a bit over the last few days giving the MV5LMY call sign some activity.