[time-nuts] Beginner's Time Reference

Alexander Sack pisymbol at gmail.com
Fri Dec 11 15:07:03 UTC 2009


On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 9:50 AM, John Green <wpxs472 at gmail.com> wrote:
> As someone relatively new to the precision time/frequency game my viewpoint
> is a little different to the more seasoned folk. Your statement that you
> wanted to build your own atomic standard leads me to believe that this is
> more of a learning experience for you. Even if you want to build it
> yourself, at some point you will wonder "Just how good is this thing? Is it
> better than the last one I built?" The cheap and easy way to answer that,
> unless whatever you build is very good indeed, is with some kind of GPSDO.
> Probably not as good as a cesium but much cheaper. If I did not have a
> Z3801, I would still be just guessing about those OCXOs and eBay rubidiums.
> I suggest that you visit James Miller's website. You can build a simple
> divider/comparator that will let you either lock whatever source you have to
> GPS or compare its frequency to GPS. The last LPRO I got off eBay was $59
> including shipping. The last Tbolt was just over a hundred. HP 10811 OCXOs
> are good but pricey. There are all kinds of rubidiums and quartz oscillators
> out there to experiment with and learn from. If a learning experience is
> what you want, read every post here for several months while exploring the
> archives. Watch eBay closely for a month or so to see what things sell for.
> Decide on what is achievable and affordable and start having fun. You will
> find that it is highly addictive.

+1

[another time-n00b]

-aps



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