[time-nuts] Fwd: rare stuff available (National Company NC-1001 Atomichron)

[John Miles]

> > Interesting reading on the atomicron. But thats one big rack plus tube.
> > Certainly a piece of history or a very good anchor for a battleship.
>
> The Atomicron is certainly a huge piece and sure it is rare. There is
> few people that I would think of that would consider it. In the best of
> worlds, it would end up in the hands of someone that would care enought
> about it to bring it back into shape. Very few would have the capability
> and love for it. It would be a neat thing thought. I wonder how one of
> those would measure up to what we have now, in modern comparision (you
> won't need to educate me on just how many development phases passed
> since it).
>
> If he gets it sold, it most probably would end up as a collectors or
> museums old artifact monstrum. Not a bad one. I doubt any restoration
> work would be done.

I think a lot of the later development work on cesium-beam standards was
aimed at reducing their physical size, cost, and maintenance requirements.
Unlike miniaturized, mass-produced, hermetically sealed tubes, the
Atomichron's tube was probably built in a way that permits disassembly and
restoration by someone who's comfortable with vacuum systems.

The tube itself is very long, so if it's late enough to incorporate a Ramsey
cavity, then it probably has a narrow line width.  SNR might be a different
story.

The rest is just standard post-WWII era microwave hardware, with a block
diagram that doesn't look all that different from later models.  I'll bet it
wouldn't be that hard to get it working again.  That'd be cool as hell.

-- john, KE5FX