[time-nuts] Rubidium Oscillators

Roy Phillips phill.r1 at btinternet.com
Mon Mar 10 08:32:14 EDT 2008


good members

What are your opinions on the usage of Rubidium Frequency Standards - in the sense -  should they be used for short periods of time (until they reach a stable state) as a check only,or is it permissible to run them continuously?

In other words, is the lamp (which is the expensive replacement item), deteriorating on a linear scale, and how fast ? I trust that this isn't a stupid question, as it was put to me recently and I was unsure of the answer.

I currently feed my Racal 9480 T&F Mainframe continuously with the 10 MHz signal from a  Ball Efratom Rubidium Standard, assuming that its superior to the OCXO built into the 9480. Or would it be more sensible cost wise, to adjust the OCXO against it on a regular basis?
 
Like many other such matters, probably the answer is obvious - but what do you say ?

regards

Roy


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