Keeping the clock accurate on MacOS

FT8 and similar modes require the PC clock (Windows, MacOS, Pi, etc) to be accurate within 2 seconds - and ideally better than that.

I have found that Windows 10 and Raspberry Pi seem to be capable of doing this themselves without further intervention, but my MacOS clock can drift out by a few seconds.

The solution is to periodically synchronise the clock to an NTP server, via a scheduled cron job. These instructions worked for me:

Set the time on an Apple Mac running macOS Mojave for FT8/WSPR | QSO365

...except that the first part of the instructions required a "sudo" in front of the command:

sudo sntp -sS pool.ntp.org

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Preventing "brown out" on a solar-powered Pi Pico

Image
The problem I have been experimenting with a solar-powered Meshtastic node, comprising a Pi Pico W and a Waveshare LoRA SX1262 board (also available from AliExpress , of course). I have housed these in a budget garden solar lamp (from eBay - many available - such as this ), which provides the charging circuit, the battery, and the enclosure. I had hoped that it would also provide the solar panel, but I found this to be insufficient so I replaced it with a larger 6V solar panel . The node runs fine when the battery is charged, but there is a problem when the battery runs down - which can happen overnight after a cloudy day. The next day when the sun comes up, the battery voltage starts to climb and at some point the Pico attempts to start up. This causes a current spike, which pulls the battery down, and the Pico shuts down. It then gets into a restart loop, which never properly resolves, and the node fails to start properly. What is needed is a way to cleanly switch the power on and...
Read more

Building a basic codeplug for DMR (DMR Part 2)

Image
What is a "codeplug"?  Confusingly, a codeplug is neither code, nor a plug! The term originates from a time when a physical plug was used to configure a radio's parameters. Nowadays it refers to a configuration file, which is typically prepared on an external PC and then uploaded to the radio. Overview This blog post continues from  Part 1 , and it assumes that you already have: A callsign A DMR ID A DMR rig - I will be using a Retevis RT3S for this example The programming software and cable for your rig. For the RT3S, the Windows software can be found here:  RT3S Software The example described below assumes that you are within reach of a DMR repeater on the Phoenix network, and that you know the details of that repeater (transmit and receive frequencies, color code). For now will configure the rig to access the DMR+ (Phoenix) network via a repeater. Subsequent posts will explain how to add analogue repeaters and simplex channels, hotspots, other networks, etc. The steps ...
Read more

Adding Brandmeister to the Hotspot (DMR Part 4)

Image
So far in this series of articles we have: Built a codeplug for the Retevis RT3S, enabling it to operate on the Phoenix (DMR+) network via a local repeater. Built a Hotspot and added a new zone to the codeplug, so that the RT3S can access the Phoenix (DMR+) network using the Hotspot. I chose Phoenix initially, because that is the network that my nearest repeater uses. Whilst this gives worldwide coverage, it is not the only DMR network. Confusingly, there are quite a few networks out there - including Brandmeister, TGIF, FreeDMR and probably others. Each has its own layout of talkgroups and timeslots. Sometimes these are similar, and there are links between networks so that some talkgroups are accessible on more than one network, but each has its own quirks and so they are different and mainly incompatible. With a Hotspot, it is possible to join more than one DMR network simultaneously - up to four networks - using functionality known as DMR Master. In this blog we will look at buildin...
Read more