[time-nuts] Reliability of atomic clocks

Attila Kinali attila at kinali.ch
Sun Mar 27 19:11:49 EDT 2016


On Sun, 27 Mar 2016 10:13:32 -0400
Bob Camp <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:

> The “typical life” numbers on the tubes in the various Cesium standards
> are fairly accurate. Most units that are well cared for “die” when the tube
> goes out and come back to life when it’s replaced. The tube life dominates
> the MTBF in this case. 

Lifetime is only one variable I am interested in. I suspect that most
of the standards have a much longer lifetime than their MTBF between
intermittent faults. E.g. Chirstopher Ekstrom reported at FSM8 that their
newly build Rb fountains show a frequency jump once in a while. After a
restart of the fountain it's back to normal. 


			Attila Kinali

-- 
Reading can seriously damage your ignorance.
		-- unknown


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