[time-nuts] Efratom SLCR-101 rubidium - what have I just bought?

Philip Pemberton lists at philpem.me.uk
Tue Dec 31 12:04:02 EST 2013


On 26/12/13 21:01, Charles Steinmetz wrote:
> Several observations:
> 
> The listing is titled and the item is described in the listing text as
> an "EFRATOM LPRO-101 10Mhz Oscillator," but the item in the photos is an
> SLCR-101.

The frequency standard arrived today. It is indeed an SLCR-101.

Lamp voltage measured at 8.14V on my Agilent DMM; if I cared enough I
could connect it to one of the recently-calibrated Solartrons but that's
a good enough ballpark figure for me

Lock is achieved (BITE goes low) after a few minutes, less if the Rb is
already warm. My TCXO-referenced Racal 1991 reports a frequency of
9.99999921 MHz after both have warmed up for a few minutes. With BITE
high (no lock), the frequency varies up and down by almost 100Hz each
way, then snaps back to the above figure when the Rb locks.

I might hook it up to the spectrum analyser later and see how clean the
output is, but on the scope it looks pretty clean.


> While the seller appears to be in the UK, the "used" stickers are the
> same (including handwriting) as those applied by an infamous Chinese
> supplier, who sells from a number of China-based ebay accounts.  So the
> ultimate origin of the item on the surplus market is apparently that
> Chinese seller.

"Infamous Chinese supplier" - who?

My suspicion is that this unit was bought, used for a brief while
(perhaps to calibrate a few instruments) and then left on a shelf.

Thanks,
-- 
Phil.
lists at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/


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