[time-nuts] KS-24361 10 Mhz mod interesting document -> older KS boxes

Bob Camp kb8tq at n1k.org
Thu Nov 20 21:07:07 EST 2014


Hi

I normally keep a watch on the lamp voltage (or what ever it actually is). I was once told by somebody who should know that you simply watch for it to drop. When it starts going down a couple volts, that’s when you should start looking for a backup. It may run for months after it starts to drop. It may run for weeks. There apparently is no good way to be sure. On a part that starts at 6 to 7 volts, that would equate to something a 3 to 4 volt limit. 

Bob

> On Nov 20, 2014, at 9:00 PM, paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Unless you have a way to know what they are doing. You won't know if they
> are failing. The initial sign is that they wink-out and restart. You will
> spot it as your gear going nuts for a bit and then magically locking up.
> Also as an approx lamp V in the 2-3V range. Thats really a gross figure I
> can't swear thats EOL. But its some place close to that.
> As such I installed the Rb winkOmeter on my unit.
> Regards
> Paul
> WB8TSL
> 
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 6:09 PM, Bob Camp <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> So far, I have yet to have one of the Rb’s die (of the ones that worked
>> when new to me). The magic “lamp voltage” on the Efratom versions clusters
>> in two groups. That seems to be related to some sort of production change
>> rather than better performance on the (slightly) newer parts.
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>>> On Nov 20, 2014, at 9:17 AM, paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On the old telco RBs $25 they all worked, but were down on lamp life. So
>>> the first one chosen ran for 3 years and then started blinking out.
>>> Replaced it with another. That first one is the one I used the heat gun
>> on
>>> and is again operable with what appears could be good lamp life.
>>> (Reasonable)
>>> Regards
>>> Paul
>>> WB8TSL
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 7:00 AM, Bob Camp <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi
>>>> 
>>>> So far, I have not found any of the Rb’s that came out of the KS boxes
>>>> with troubles. The ones I got and pulled from boxes myself all have
>> worked
>>>> fine. The units that got pulled on the other side of an ocean, not so
>> much.
>>>> There have been a couple of them with issues. What ever they go through
>>>> getting shipped overseas and salvaged, it’s not doing the parts any
>> good.
>>>> That’s one of the reasons getting the newer design KS boxes NIB has a
>> lot
>>>> of appeal. There are infant mortality reliability issues to deal with on
>>>> new stuff. I’d rather have those issues than end of life and corrosion.
>>>> 
>>>> Bob
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On Nov 19, 2014, at 9:05 PM, paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> And I am the happy owner of 4 or 5 of the $25 RBs. Hey they are old but
>>>> you
>>>>> can recover them with the old heatgun trick. That said glowing things
>>>> like
>>>>> those do tend to wear out. I could see why they moved away from them.
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 8:15 PM, Bob Camp <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hi
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Lucent has been putting GPS based Radio Frequency Timing Generators
>>>> (RFTG)
>>>>>> into cell sites for a long time. They all have the 15 MHz and pps
>>>> outputs
>>>>>> in common. Lucent also seems to like one paint color and an
>> approximate
>>>>>> size. For what ever reason (because they can?) the model numbers and
>>>>>> internal designs change from time to time. For quite a while they
>> really
>>>>>> liked the idea of running Rb’s in cell sites. Looking at the latest
>>>> batch
>>>>>> of parts, that seems to have changed around 1999.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Lots of generations of very similar looking boxes with very different
>>>>>> stuff inside each of them.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Bob
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Nov 19, 2014, at 7:53 PM, paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I just saw the picture of the units front panel and it looked the
>> same.
>>>>>>> Oh well.
>>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>> Paul
>>>>>>> WB8TSL
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 7:08 PM, Bob Camp <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Hi
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> This is a branch thread that never got it’s title changed to drop
>> the
>>>>>>>> KS-24361 part of it. More or less it’s “compare the older KS boxes
>> to
>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>> newer ones”.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Bob
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> On Nov 19, 2014, at 6:03 PM, Dan Rae <danrae at verizon.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> On 11/19/2014 2:47 PM, paul swed wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> Was doing a search for Lucent RFTGm-II-XO looking for alternates
>> to
>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> $150 solution.
>>>>>>>>>> A 10 Mhz mod popped up.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> http://telcodata.us/~myself/Lucent-RFTGm-Modification.pdf
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Looks simple enough and I have not validated anything.
>>>>>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>>>>> Paul
>>>>>>>>>> WB8TSL
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Paul, that has nothing to do with the current ebay offerings that
>>>> have
>>>>>>>> generated so much traffic recently...
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Dan
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