Airspy R2 MCX port Useage

[severance17]

I am a long time member of radio reference and a long time scanner user who has recently begun a dive into software defined radios (6 months or so). And I have recently purchased a number a of SDRs (RTL-SDR, AIRSPY HF+ Discovery, and AIRSPY R2 w/ Spyverter). And during this dive with the purchase of the Airspy R2, I have now gained the ability to incorporate an external clock reference with the MCX port the Airspy R2 offers. However, I am looking to get some information from the community as to when and how I would use this component of the SDR. I also have multiple PC based GPS receivers (uBlox7-usb, uBlox8-usb and GlobalSat BU-353-S4 USB) but none of which offer time reference outputs other than being used as NTP servers and positioning (unless I’m missing something, which is possible).

I have successfully setup a functioning ADS-B receiver connected to ADSBHub and I can use the SDRs for normal radio scanning with no issue that I am aware of. I am just really curious what could be gained from this external clock reference, when I should and shouldn’t use it and what others use it for and why. Pretty much I want to learn all I can about it and I was hoping the community could help me do that!

 

[slicerwizard]

External clock signal is used for applications like radio direction finding, where the clocking of multiple SDRs has to be exactly the same.

 

[severance17]

External clock signal is used for applications like radio direction finding, where the clocking of multiple SDRs has to be exactly the same.

Would i need to use a GPS device to achieve the correct timing or could i use a signal generator with reference clock output to do this?

 

[slicerwizard]

The latter.

 

[boatbod]

Would i need to use a GPS device to achieve the correct timing or could i use a signal generator with reference clock output to do this?

GPS Disciplined Reference Oscillator

GPS clock. Ideal frequency standard for supplying an external reference clock signal to the DG8SAQ Low Cost Vector Network Analyzer.

sdr-kits.net

 

[severance17]

GPS Disciplined Reference Oscillator

GPS clock. Ideal frequency standard for supplying an external reference clock signal to the DG8SAQ Low Cost Vector Network Analyzer.

sdr-kits.net

The GNSS modules I have (uBlox7 and uBlox8 at least) have a disciplined reference oscillator within them. And connect to my PC via a USB cable which is translated using a UART via serial or via the windows API. But the two GNSS units do not have MCX output ports, is it possible to use the DGO from the GNSS to synchronize the radios in this configuration or do I need a physical connection to the MCX reference clock port for it to work at all?

 

[boatbod]

Pretty sure it's not going to do anything unless you hook up the MCX