[time-nuts] Any thoughts on best rubidium?

Dr. David Kirkby david.kirkby at onetel.net
Wed Jul 13 15:56:30 UTC 2011


On 07/11/11 01:25 AM, Will Matney wrote:
> David,
>
> The FE-5680A is always plentiful, and a lot of them are generally mounted
> on a PC board, from pulls, along with having a decent price. The main thing
> is availability, which means spare parts if you need them. I also know that
> I've seen these used as internal timebases for counters before on the
> larger HP types.

I decided to get the  FE-5680A in the end. I found a seller willing to accept 
£75 (~$120) for a pair of them shipped to my house in the UK. At $60 each 
(including shipping), I thought that was a fair price.

If at a later date I decide I want something with higher performance, I'll 
reevaluate the situation.

I don't have a need for high absolute accuracy, but I'd like to have something 
better than an HP10811A (or similar) that has not been calibrated for a decade 
or two.

I've got a Kenwood TS-940S transceiver with the rare SO-1 TCXO installed. 
According to the spectrum analyser, that is about 40 Hz off, but I've no idea 
how much of that difference is due to the transceiver or HP10811A oscillator in 
the analyser. Logic would suggest the oven should be better, but that has not 
been calibrated for years, so the crystal has no doubt aged.

A non-disiplied rubidium is not state of the art, but I'd feel comfortable in 
setting both the transceivers TCXO and the analyser's OCXO to the rubidium.


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