[time-nuts] Upgrade an HP 5342A microwave frequency counter to have an oven oscillator.

[Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)]

On 27 November 2014 at 22:38, Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)
> <drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote:

> It was very easy to fit the 10811A oven (HP 10811-60111) and get the
> oven working

<snip>

> With the old TCXO in the frequency counter, the indicated frequency of
> the 10 GHz signal was about 48 kHz off, but it moved around a KHz or
> so. In contrast, now the oven is installed, the reading is a *lot*
> more stable, with it shifted about 15 Hz.

This got me thinking.

For anyone else owning a HP 5342A with a TCXO, it would be fairly trivial &
very  cheap to fit a low cost ($20 or so) OCXO on a bit of strip board and
it should improve the performance for very little money. The strip board
would just plug in the same socket as the HP TCXO or OCXO. A cheap unit
would not have the performance of a 10811A, but the price would be a lot
lower than a used 10811A.

Dave.