[time-nuts] Z3805 and Fluke.I

Rex rexa at sonic.net
Thu Oct 30 10:02:00 UTC 2008


Pierre-François (f5bqp_pfm) wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I think this is a great idea to replace my legacy Z3816A!...
> I also hope they'll offer as a gift the software to drive it, and they 
> should gratify Bill K8CU to modify his software GPSCON to support the Z3805 
> if it's not done yet!... ;-))
> 35 bucs sems to be reasonable to me, these difficult financial days...
> Considering also that these receivers are also legacies, certainly pulled 
> off from legacy networks...
>
> Best 73's to all of you.
>
> pf, F5BQP
>
>
>   

$35 would be great, but I suspect it may be a good bit less than the 
current owner has invested. But I can't, myself, see paying a bit more 
than double what I invested in my Z3816A. Might be ok for some, but 
seems way pricey vs the current available Thunderbolts unless there is 
some major advantage that I don't know about. Lost the link, was it 
rs422 control port? I don't see that as an advantage. The 3816 talks to 
standard serial without modification.

I think what you have is pretty good. Not all that much legacy vs most 
of my favorite stuff. Can't see why it would wear out soon. No Cs or Rb.

His listing does short the Z3816A by a few ports in the comparison. 
There are 4 1 PPS ports, not two and there are also 4 19.6608 MHz ports. 
If you don't have use for the 19.6 ports, I did find a way to convert 
mine to make them 10 MHz square wave outputs. See:
http://www.xertech.net/Projects/Z3816/3816_mod.html

This gives the 3816 these outputs: standard 2 10 MHz sine, 4 1 PPS pulse 
and then 4 10 MHz square wave.

For those who can afford, happy shopping.   For any who have Z3816A's 
and want more 10 MHz, I hope my mod works for you.




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