[time-nuts] old freq standards

[Tom Van Baak]

> Since Symmetricom has recently purchased the entire line of frequency and
time
> products from Agilent, Symmetricom has already announced that they will
> discontinue support of most of them. They are notoriously unhelpful even
for
> current products they manufacture. Other old manufacurers have already
discarded
> all documentation and spare parts. So my advice is to avoid buying all
older
> atomic standard units made by Varian, Trak, and HP unless you have more
than one
> to use for parts.

Quite true.

The other way to look at it, though, is that it just
makes the surplus market better for the hobbyist.

Many of us have 5061A cesium's, for example, even
though that model was discontinued by HP close to
20 years ago. That's part of the reason you can buy
a used one for 1/100th the original price.

Symmetricom makes some very cool stuff; the sooner
they drop stuff from the product line the sooner you'll
seem them for cents on the dollar on eBay...

Consider also the Z3801A. That one discontinued
product has enabled literally hundreds of amateurs
access to cheap precise time & frequency like never
before.

/tvb
http://www.leapsecond.com/time-nuts.htm