One-Way Time Synchronization via Geostationary Satellites at UHF

This paper describes an experiment designed to evaluate the accuracy of one-way clock synchronization using geostationary satellites with the propagation delays calculated from the satellite's orbital elements. Propagation delays from a ground transmitter via satellite to each of five locations in the North and South American continents were measured and compared with the calculated values. Three months of data are presented along with descriptions of the equipment, timing signal format, and methods for delay calculation and time recovery. The results show that within two weeks of epoch for the orbital elements, clocks can be synchronized to 150 ??s using the Tactical Communications Satellite (TACSAT). If one of the observers of the timing signals was already synchronized to the master clock, his delay measurement could improve the results for TACSAT to 75 ??s. By the same method and within 12 hours of epoch, the results for the Lincoln Experimental Satellite-6 (LES-6) indicated that synchronization to 25 ??s was possible.