[time-nuts] problem with Efratom FRS-C from eBay

Robert Darlington rdarlington at gmail.com
Fri Oct 17 22:47:06 UTC 2008


Hello all,

My FRS-C showed up today.  I carefully wired it up and powered it on.  I got
a nearly 10MHz signal out.  The frequency counter is dancing around a bit
and I get a 0.02 V on the lock indicator line after about an hour warm up.
Specs show this should happen in under 10 minutes and it looks like it is
not locking.   Dead unit?

I obtained it from this ad:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290262243079

The unit that I received does not show TTL after the frequency and the scope
output looks like a cross between a sinewave and a ringing square wave.  I
have about 13 feet of RG174 between the FRS and the measurement equipment so
who knows.   This is the "*Rubidium and GPS DO From
China<http://stores.ebay.com/Rubidium-and-GPS-DO-From-China>"
*eBay store, which I thought was pretty reputable so I want to make sure I'm
not doing anything wrong before I contact the seller, PayPal, etc.*  *There
was also a big white sticker covering the whole top of the unit.  I had to
remove it to verify the pinouts and the model information.  Hoepfully that
didn't void my warranty on the $100 paperweight.  Should I let it sit
overnight?  Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob, N3XKB


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