Inside Frequency Control

Building resilience into Global Positioning System (GPS) timing and frequency receivers is crucial in the 21st century. Since the presidential directive on U.S Space-Based Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) and Critical Infrastructure Protection (PPD-21), federal agencies have been advancing their efforts when it comes to GPS and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) capabilities. 

In 1994, the world's first digital satellite TV services were launched in Thailand and South Africa. They utilized the newly developed Digital Video Broadcasting Satellite (DVB-S) system.

Over time, DVB-S became the most popular system for delivering digital TV broadcasts. Technology has advanced and spread tremendously since then, which lead to an increased need for advances to the DVB-S system. Thus, the DVB-S2 and DVB-S2X systems were born!

Let's take a look at these two DVB standards and the main differences between them. 

We can't possibly be the only intelligent life-forms in this infinite universe, can we? I mean, there's still plenty of exploring to do in our own solar system let alone nearby stars, our entire galaxy, and surrounding galaxies. Will our current deep space communication efforts, like Voyager 1, ever stumble across alien life so us humans can say, "Hi! We're here!"? Or will it take so long that our messages would be more like, "Hi! We were here!"? 

Let's explore some current communication efforts to make contact with aliens and how they work.

Since the beginning of NASA, radio communication has been the go-to method of communication for spacecrafts. Well, that's about to change. NASA has recently announced they will be making a major change to some of their upcoming communication systems by implementing new, cutting-edge, laser communication technology. 

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Drones...Drones...Drones... It's almost like everywhere you go these days you can't help but be sucked into "drone chat". 

We've been doing a lot of talk about the new space movement and the newest LEO constellation innovations. It's about time that we bring to your attention that LEO constellatioins aren't the only innovation when it comes to the new space (or space 2.0) movement. As technology and payloads of satellites continue to skyrocket (ha!), so does our ability to efficiently explore the deep, dark depths of outer space.

Bliley Technologies has been recognized in the frequency control industry as one of the premier suppliers for high quality OCXOs for over 85 Years.  Bliley has been moving up the value chain from an RF system perspective.  Within the last year, Bliley has developed a commercial LEO solution to provide a master reference oscillator which provides the functionality of a PLL and OCXO from the GPSDO design and is currently in production. 

TCXO Performance Qualities

A standard TCXO has quite a few performance qualities. Some of the most common performance figures are summarized below:

The international space station (ISS) is traveling in orbit around our earth at about 217 Miles (350 km) above earth’s surface. That’s equal to about 1,148,294 feet (yes, over 1 MILLION feet) or 350,000 meters above you. Those are some crazy heights! The ISS and other satellite communication devices must be able to cover a ton of earth’s surface from there, right?

Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s explore...