[time-nuts] Neat toys on eBay for PN measurement

John Miles jmiles at pop.net
Tue Jul 10 14:29:30 EDT 2007


Picosecond Pulse Labs quoted me $1,000 for one of the NLTL comb generators a
couple of years ago.  They are nice parts, no question about it, and
substantially better than SRD multipliers.

In quantity, they would be cheaper, since I was just asking them for a
one-off price to some random guy with a credit card.

However, the residual noise floor of the 11729x is still lower than its
absolute spec when driven by an 8662A's 640 MHz output (see page 42 of
11729B-1).  So unless you plan to use a quieter 640-MHz driver than an
option-3 8662A, there seems little benefit in improving its comb generator.
Likewise, the noise at the 8662A's main output still limits the floor of at
least some microwave measurements with the 11729.

That said, I am trying to get a price quote out of Wenzel for a 640 MHz ULN
OCXO:
http://www.wenzel.com/pdffiles1/Oscillators/ULN_130_to_650.pdf

This is the only OTS source I can find that's substantially cleaner than the
'typical' figures quoted for the 8662A's 640-MHz output.  It would sure be
nice to install one of these as an an internal source in the 11729, and
drive its electrical tuning line from the quadrature PLL.

-- john, KE5FX


> -----Original Message-----
> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com]On
> Behalf Of Jeffrey Pawlan
> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 7:11 AM
> To: grant at ghengineering.co.uk; Discussion of precise time and frequency
> measurement
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Neat toys on eBay for PN measurement
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, 10 Jul 2007, Grant Hodgson wrote:
>
> > I've been wondering if it would be possible or practical to
> > replace the internal Step-Recovery Diode comb generator in the 11729B/C
> > with one of the Non-Linear Transmission Line comb generators from
> > Picosecond Pulse Labs.
>
>
> Yes, it is just a matter of economics. I seem to recall them
> telling me that in
> small quantities (10pcs) the price was around $8000. That was
> last year so maybe
> the price has come down somewhat.
>
>
> 73,
>
> Jeffrey Pawlan  WA6KBL
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.
>




More information about the time-nuts mailing list