# TLDR

Make a highly accurate clock where time is kept by the radio signals from millisecond pulsars, amd shoehorn in Universal Beat Time for autism

# Todo

1.  research
    1.  Best millisecond pulsars for my location
        1.  Their radio frequency
        2.  their period
            1.  period stability
        3.  their location
        4.  their drift
2.  Run numbers
3.  get equipment list together
4.  sanity check numbers and list via radio nerds and the astrophysics nerds
    1.  Antenna
    2.  Dish
    3.  LNA
    4.  Connectors
5.  figure out signal processing (linux software)
6.  figure out multi-pulsar usage

# Shopping List

1.  5 meter dish (16.6 feet diameter) [AliBaba](https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Big-Size-3m-4m-4-5m_1601092778180.html?spm=a2700.details.you_may_like.1.13805ab039GiG4)
2.  Tripod / Mount
    1.  Altitude‑Azimuth mount
        1.  possibly motorized/automatic
    2.  cables/antennas to hookup to dish
3.  NanoVNA to get frequency right (**HAVE**)
4.  Star finder tool/app
    1.  Android?
5.  RTL-SDR v4 [eBay](https://www.ebay.com/itm/276000581691?epid=28064968184&itmmeta=01KMSM3SQX0HRVAMMWKZ9MEE9W&hash=item4042eaa83b:g:SOoAAOSwapVk3Jg~)
6.  Low Noise Amplifier [eBay](https://www.ebay.com/itm/283455455676?itmmeta=01KMSM3SQX7KDXAP18A63J8K91&hash=item41ff4301bc:g:fqAAAOSw1lxct6~v)
7.  Computer
    1.  Linux
        1.  RPI5
        2.  Laptop
8.  Assorted cables/antennas/software
    1.  USB-Extenders
        1.  USB-A 3.1 Female to USB-A 3.1 Male (**HAVE**)

**Yes — it *is* possible for an amateur to detect (and even “listen to”) pulsars**, but the difficulty ranges from “challenging but doable” to “requires a giant dish.” The key is understanding the difference between **detecting** a pulsar and **hearing individual pulses in real time**.

Below is a clear, structured breakdown grounded in the evidence from your search results.

# Links

[Pulsar Clock (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar_clock)

# AI Answers

## ⭐ **Short Answer**

- **Detecting** a pulsar: **Yes, amateurs can do this** with a modest dish (2–5 meters), an RTL‑SDR, a low‑noise amplifier, and the right software. [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/af0ejc/listening_to_pulsars/) [RTL-SDR](https://www.rtl-sdr.com/amateur-pulsar-observations-rtl-sdr/)
- **Listening to individual pulses in real time**: **Only possible with very large antennas** (≈25 meters or more). [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/af0ejc/listening_to_pulsars/)

* * *

## 🛰️ What amateurs *can* do

### **1\. Detect strong pulsars using small-to-medium dishes**

Amateurs have successfully detected pulsars like **Vela** and **B0329+54** using:

- **2.5–5 m backyard dishes**
- **RTL‑SDR dongles** (cheap software-defined radios)
- **Low-noise amplifiers**
- **DSP software** (Presto, rapulsar, custom tools)

Some amateurs have detected **up to 15 pulsars** with setups like a 7.3 m dish and RTL‑SDR receivers. [RTL-SDR](https://www.rtl-sdr.com/amateur-pulsar-observations-rtl-sdr/)

Even a **3 m dish** can detect B0329+54 reliably. [qsl.net](https://www.qsl.net/oe5jfl/pulsar/detecting_pulsars.pdf)

### **2\. Use signal processing to reveal the pulse profile**

Because pulsar signals are extremely weak, amateurs typically:

- Record several minutes of data
- **Fold** the signal over the known pulsar period
- Average thousands of rotations to extract the pulse shape

This is standard practice and well within amateur capability. [British Astronomical Association](https://britastro.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AmateurPulsarDetection.pdf)

* * *

## 🔊 What amateurs *cannot easily* do

### **Real-time audio of individual pulses**

To literally *hear* the pulses as clicks or beats, you need:

- A **very large antenna** (≈25 m dish)
- **High-bandwidth receivers** (tens of MHz)
- **Extremely low-noise amplifiers**
- Real-time DSP

One amateur using the **25 m Dwingeloo radio telescope** can hear only the **two brightest northern pulsars**. [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/af0ejc/listening_to_pulsars/)

This is far beyond typical home equipment.

* * *

## 🎧 What does a pulsar sound like?

Recordings exist from professional telescopes (NRAO, Arecibo), and they sound like rhythmic static or a metronome buried in noise. [Radio-Sky Publishing](https://radiosky.com/rspplsr.html)

* * *

## 🧰 Minimum practical amateur setup

If your goal is **detection**, not real-time audio:

- **Dish**: 2–5 m
- **LNA**: <0.5 dB noise figure
- **Receiver**: RTL‑SDR (2 MHz bandwidth is enough)
- **Software**: Presto, rapulsar, or similar folding tools
- **Target pulsars**: Vela, B0329+54, B0950+08

This is achievable on a modest budget and is a popular project in amateur radio astronomy communities.

* * *

## 🧭 Bottom Line

- **Yes, amateurs can detect pulsars**, and many already do.
- **Hearing them live** requires a **huge dish**, but you *can* process your data to create audio-like outputs afterward.
- The strongest pulsars are within reach of dedicated hobbyists with a few meters of dish and an SDR.

* * *

If you want, I can outline:

- A **step-by-step beginner setup**,
- A **shopping list** for the cheapest viable pulsar station, or
- Which pulsars are easiest to detect from your location.

You can measure time using pulsar signals with **astonishing precision**—in some cases rivaling or even exceeding the stability of the best atomic clocks. The exact precision depends on the type of pulsar, the observing setup, and how long you observe it.

Below is a structured, evidence‑based breakdown using the search results you triggered.

* * *

## ⭐ **Short Answer**

With the best millisecond pulsars and long-term monitoring, **pulsar timing can achieve time‑of‑arrival precision at the ~100 nanosecond level**, and in some cases even better.  
This allows pulsars to function as **“celestial clocks”** with long‑term stability comparable to atomic clocks.  
[HEASARC](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nicer/data_analysis/workshops/2024/presentations/3.11_MeganDeCesar_pulsartiming.pdf)

* * *

## 🧭 **How Pulsar Timing Achieves Such Precision**

Pulsar timing works by:

1.  Recording many pulses
2.  **Folding** them together to create a stable average profile
3.  Measuring the **time of arrival (TOA)** of that profile
4.  Fitting a detailed timing model that accounts for:
    - Spin frequency
    - Spin‑down
    - Orbital motion (if binary)
    - Astrometric parameters
    - Interstellar dispersion
    - Relativistic effects

TOA precision depends heavily on:

- Pulse sharpness
- Signal‑to‑noise
- Bandwidth
- Template matching accuracy

Modern systems can achieve **TOA uncertainties of ~100 ns**.  
[HEASARC](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nicer/data_analysis/workshops/2024/presentations/3.11_MeganDeCesar_pulsartiming.pdf)

* * *

## ⏱️ **What This Means in Practice**

### **1\. Millisecond pulsars are incredibly stable**

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) rotate hundreds of times per second and have extremely stable pulse profiles. They are the primary targets for precision timing.  
[Cambridge University Press & Assessment](https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/12A3DB6229A9F0661D3FD990725E931B/S1743921309990421a.pdf/the-art-of-precision-pulsar-timing.pdf)

### **2\. Long-term timing stability rivals atomic clocks**

Over years to decades, the best MSPs maintain rotational stability comparable to:

- **Hydrogen masers**
- **Cesium fountain clocks**

This is why pulsars are used in:

- Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs)
- Gravitational wave detection
- Tests of general relativity
- Potential future deep‑space navigation systems  
    [arXiv.org](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.00080)

* * *

## 📏 **How precise can pulsar-based timekeeping get?**

### **🔹 Short-term precision (per observation):**

- **~100 nanoseconds** TOA precision is achievable with modern radio telescopes.  
    [HEASARC](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nicer/data_analysis/workshops/2024/presentations/3.11_MeganDeCesar_pulsartiming.pdf)

### **🔹 Long-term stability (years to decades):**

- Some MSPs maintain phase coherence over **10+ years** with deviations of only a few hundred nanoseconds.
- This makes them competitive with the best atomic clocks for long-term stability.

### **🔹 Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs):**

By combining many pulsars, PTAs effectively create a **galactic-scale clock network** with timing sensitivity in the nanosecond regime.  
[arXiv.org](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.00080)

* * *

## 🛰️ **Why aren’t pulsars used as our official time standard?**

Even though pulsars are incredibly stable, they have limitations:

- Signals pass through the interstellar medium, adding noise (dispersion, scattering).
- They require large radio telescopes and long integration times.
- Atomic clocks are more practical for real-time terrestrial timekeeping.

But for **long-term stability**, pulsars remain one of the most stable natural clocks in the universe.

* * *

## ⭐ **Bottom Line**

- **Best-case precision:** ~100 ns TOA accuracy
- **Long-term stability:** Comparable to top-tier atomic clocks
- **Use cases:** Gravitational wave detection, tests of relativity, potential navigation systems

Pulsars are not just cosmic lighthouses—they’re **cosmic clocks**, and some of the most stable ones known.

* * *

If you want, I can also explain:

- Which specific pulsars are the best clocks
- How amateurs can contribute to pulsar timing
- How pulsar timing compares numerically to optical atomic clocks

It’s **not very difficult to aim a dish at a pulsar**, but the difficulty depends on **how big your dish is**, **how accurately it can point**, and **how strong the pulsar is**. The good news is that pulsars don’t move quickly across the sky, and their positions are known with extreme precision, so the challenge is mostly mechanical rather than astronomical.

Here’s the practical breakdown.

* * *

## ⭐ **1\. Pulsars are fixed, well‑charted targets**

Pulsars have extremely precise coordinates (right ascension and declination), often known to **milliarcsecond accuracy**.  
This means:

- You don’t have to “search” for them
- You simply point your dish to the published coordinates
- They drift slowly due to Earth’s rotation, so tracking is predictable

This makes aiming **much easier** than aiming at satellites or fast-moving objects.

* * *

## ⭐ **2\. The real challenge is beamwidth**

The **larger your dish**, the **narrower the beam**, and the more precisely you must aim.

### Approximate beamwidths:

- **1 m dish @ 1.4 GHz** → ~10° beam (very forgiving)
- **3 m dish @ 1.4 GHz** → ~3° beam
- **5 m dish @ 1.4 GHz** → ~2° beam
- **10 m dish @ 1.4 GHz** → ~1° beam

Even a 1–3° beam is easy to hit with a basic azimuth/elevation mount.

You don’t need arcsecond precision like optical telescopes.

* * *

## ⭐ **3\. Tracking is simple**

Because pulsars are fixed celestial objects, you can track them using:

- A manual alt‑az mount with slow‑motion controls
- A motorized mount with basic tracking
- A fixed dish plus drift‑scan (let the sky move over you)

Many amateur pulsar detections are done with **fixed dishes** using drift scans.

* * *

## ⭐ **4\. The hard part isn’t aiming — it’s sensitivity**

Detecting a pulsar requires:

- A low‑noise amplifier (LNA)
- A clean RF chain
- Enough collecting area (2–5 m dish for strong pulsars)
- Long integration times
- Software to fold the pulses

Aiming is rarely the limiting factor.  
**Signal strength is.**

* * *

## ⭐ **5\. How precise do you need to be?**

For strong pulsars like **B0329+54** or **Vela**, you can be off by a degree or two and still detect them.

For weaker pulsars, you want to be within **0.5–1°**.

This is well within the capability of:

- A homemade alt‑az mount
- A repurposed satellite dish mount
- A small rotator system

* * *

## ⭐ **Bottom Line**

Aiming a dish at a pulsar is **not difficult**.  
The coordinates are known precisely, the sky motion is predictable, and the required pointing accuracy is modest. The real challenge is **collecting enough signal**, not pointing the dish.

If you want, I can also outline:

- The easiest pulsars to aim at from Colorado
- How to build a simple mount for pulsar tracking
- How to test your pointing accuracy using radio sources like Cassiopeia A or the Sun