Establishing Traceability with a GPS Disciplined Clock: A Preliminary Report

The metrological definition of traceability requires a documented and unbroken chain of calibrations that each contribute to the measurement uncertainty [1]. The calibrations must be end-to-end, which for a Global Positioning System Disciplined Clock (GPSDC), must include the antenna and cabling. While understanding legal definitions may be arduous at times, working with metrology labs to develop detailed criteria can be constructive for GPSDC manufacturers. To establish the suitability of a GPSDC for traceability, we have compared the one pulse-per-second (PPS) outputs of several GPSDCs to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) realization of Coordinated Universal Time, termed UTC(NIST). The GPSDC measurements included the use of several different antennas, with results showing agreement to within to tens of nanoseconds of UTC(NIST). We will explain these measurements and provide estimations of their associated uncertainties.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit https://telemetry.org/contact-us/ if you have questions about items in this collection