[time-nuts] HP 10544A Repair

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Ok a bit more of the story. 

It’s easy to simply turn on the device and see how it warms up. Back when it was made, the 
SC did not yet exist. The only thing it could be was a BT. With an X-ray setup you can absolutely 
tell it’s a BT. With the blank and a pair of calipers you can make a darn good guess it’s a BT. 

Since HP did not make their own blanks, the “competition” was the source of their blanks. No need
for those guys to guess about anything. 

Despite all of this logical and rational thinking, the BT remained a “top secret” sort of thing as far
as (at least certain people at) HP were concerned. Those who were concerned also had the route
to the HP PR machine so that’s the story that went out to the world. 

Those involved left HP long ago. The whole thing became a non-issue once the 10811 came out. 
What is the most amazing thing to me is that 30 years after it became a non-issue there still is 
confusion about the topic. 

Bob

> On Feb 28, 2016, at 11:48 AM, jimlux <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> On 2/28/16 6:23 AM, Bob Camp wrote:
>> Hi
>> 
>> The whole “BT Cut” issue was a big top secret in HP. They spent a lot of time obscuring
>> the fact that they used BT’s. The belief was that if any of the other outfits figured out that
>> was what they were doing, the competition would have better OCXO’s.
>> 
> 
> 
> Can you tell what the cut is if you have the blank in front of you?
> 
> Wouldn't the competition just buy an instrument with the oscillator, saw it open, and measure it?
> 
> 
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