How To Get Precise Time Outside Your Shack

 

Often when I decide to do Parks on the Air (POTA), I just grab my gear and go forgetting to sync my laptop’s time.  When I get to the park, sometimes my system clock is 5-30 seconds off which means I’m not able to do FT8.

I have found some inexpensive solutions to help fix this issue.  First, you’ll need a GPS dongle to capture accurate time signals.  These dongles are great and can get time almost anywhere, if they have a good view of the sky. 

Here is the one I like since I can move it around if I need to and can keep it away from my radio to reduce RFI. It is called the “VFAN USB GPS Receiver Antenna Gmouse for Laptop PC Car Marine Navigation Magnetic Base” and available on Amazon for $20. 

If you want something less expensive ($12) and smaller, I’ve heard good things about this unit (although I have never used it) – “HiLetgo VK172 G-Mouse USB GPS/GLONASS USB GPS Receiver for Windows 10/8/7/VISTA/XP”.

Next, you’ll need software to allow your computer to interface with the dongle and update its clock.  Here are a couple of options that I’ve tested. The first one is free and it is called BktTimeSync (https://www.maniaradio.it/en/bkttimesync.html).  

Since there are a lot of ads on the download page, here is the direct download link – (https://www.maniaradio.it/OldVersion/elenco.php?nomefile=BktTimeSync%2FBktTimeSync_1.20.6.exe).

After downloading you’ll need to find the COM port of your GPS dongle. In your Windows search box (bottom left of your screen), type “Device Manager” and press “Enter”.

Now click on the “>” next to Ports (COM & LPT)

Look for something like USB Serial Device and note the COM number (in this case 9).

If you have a lot of devices and are not sure which one it might be, you can unplug the GPS dongle and see what disappears to find the COM port number for it.

Now go into BktTimeSync and adjust the COM port to the correct number and set the speed to 9600 baud.

You should then see your GPS coordinates show up if you have the right COM port.

Next, make sure you click GPS enable and turn off NTP. 

Now click “Sync Now”.

and you should see a successful GPS sync notification.

Next, you’ll want to set your syncing options moving forward if they are different than the default.

For software option 2, I really like NMEATime2 since it is much simpler to use and has some cool data screens - https://www.visualgps.net/#nmeatime2-content. It is about $21 (and free for the first 30 days to try) .

To get set up with it, you’ll need to set the COM port of your dongle.

What is nice here is you do not need to use the Device Manager since the program shows you the descriptions of each COM port in setup dialog box.

Pick the correct port and set it to 9600 baud.

You should see a “Locked” indication and the program will now automatically sync and update your computer’s clock for you on an ongoing basis.

You can now click the “GPS Status” tab to see what satellites it is using.

As well as see some info on the accuracy of your computer’s clock on the “Loop Status” tab.

That’s all there is to it for you to have accurate time out in the field. Have fun at your next POTA knowing that your time is exact!

Product links:

 https://www.amazon.com/Receiver-Antenna-Gmouse-Laptop-Navigation/dp/B073P3Y48Q

https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-G-Mouse-GLONASS-Receiver-Windows/dp/B01MTU9KTF