Application Note – 52
New features on the ptf 3207A GNS receiver.

Precise Time and Frequency, LLC (ptf), is always looking for new ways to enhance the value and utility of our product offerings. Below is a summary of the latest additions to our flagship instrument, the ptf 3207A Enhanced GNS receiver.
- New capability to track UTC within 10 nano seconds (see note below)
- Precision Phase Measurement Capabilities, <1ns comparisons
- Multi constellation capabilities including:
- GPS (Global Positioning Satellites – USA)
- Galileo – Europe
- Glonass – Russia
- SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation Systems)
- WAAS (FAA Wide Area Augmentation Satellites – USA)
- EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service – Europe)
- Jamming / Spoofing detection capabilities
- High density rear panel for up to 24 outputs on a 1U chassis
- Remote software download capabilities / System restore capabilities
UTC Note
What does 10ns synchronization to UTC Mean Anyway – 1 needle in an 18ft high Haystack!
With this new development, ptf can offer a clock synchronized to UTC with a precision of better than 10ns (one sigma standard deviation = 6.86 ns).
To put this into perspective an analogy developed by Justin Dolske, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio was used. Dolske compared the difficulty of finding one key out of all the possible variations in a 56-bit DES encryption key to finding a needle in a haystack 1 mile high.
Using the same analogy, ptf has calculated that the accuracy of a 10 ns clock is approximately the same ratio to one second as finding a needle in an 18ft foot high haystack. Maybe not quite as challenging as the 56 bit DES example, but nevertheless still quite impressive!
To see how its done, download the paper. App_51 – High Precision to UTC