[time-nuts] Beginner's Time Reference

John Green wpxs472 at gmail.com
Fri Dec 11 14:50:49 UTC 2009


As someone relatively new to the precision time/frequency game my viewpoint
is a little different to the more seasoned folk. Your statement that you
wanted to build your own atomic standard leads me to believe that this is
more of a learning experience for you. Even if you want to build it
yourself, at some point you will wonder "Just how good is this thing? Is it
better than the last one I built?" The cheap and easy way to answer that,
unless whatever you build is very good indeed, is with some kind of GPSDO.
Probably not as good as a cesium but much cheaper. If I did not have a
Z3801, I would still be just guessing about those OCXOs and eBay rubidiums.
I suggest that you visit James Miller's website. You can build a simple
divider/comparator that will let you either lock whatever source you have to
GPS or compare its frequency to GPS. The last LPRO I got off eBay was $59
including shipping. The last Tbolt was just over a hundred. HP 10811 OCXOs
are good but pricey. There are all kinds of rubidiums and quartz oscillators
out there to experiment with and learn from. If a learning experience is
what you want, read every post here for several months while exploring the
archives. Watch eBay closely for a month or so to see what things sell for.
Decide on what is achievable and affordable and start having fun. You will
find that it is highly addictive.


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