[time-nuts] problem with Efratom FRS-C from eBay

[Tim Shoppa]

SAIDJACK at aol.com wrote:
> My question: I was told by people in-the-know that Rubidium Atomic  Frequency 
> references are illegal to export to China, and folks have gone to jail  for 
> sending these to China.

I am guessing that whatever shows up in that store, has been
removed from surplus telco equipment that got sent to China as
part of reclamation.

> Does anyone know if this restriction has been lifted? If not, I wonder how  
> they got access to so many Rb's.

But they're the ones selling them to us :-). I'm guessing that new
Rubidium standards are made up of 98% Chinese parts, if not 100%.

Sort of like when Feynman was at Los Alamos, he found a hole in the fence,
and used it sneak out and then come in through the official guarded
entrance 5 times in the same hour. As near as they could tell, there
wasn't any rule about coming in without leaving first!

Modern nuclear plant security is actually very picky about this and
they don't let you come in twice without leaving in between.

Tim.