[time-nuts] Z3805 initial behaviour after power up

[Mark Sims]

I have had four HP5370A counters (three with 10811 oscillators and one with the 10544).  All four units took a very long time to stabilize after being in storage for who knows how long.  

Typically I would set the oscillators so that the freq of a 10 MHz cesium would read around 0.006 Hz high.  The first week the counter would drift below 10 MHz a few times every day.  The next week took them around a day.  It was a good two months before the oscillators finally stabilized to the point where they would not drift by more than 0.002 Hz per month.  Interestingly,  the 10544 oscillator shows, by far,  the best long term aging.

I also have several of those surplus UCT 8663 double oven oscillators that I installed in Tek 5010 counters.  They typically take a couple of weeks to age in so that the last digit is no longer drifting.

Also, in frequency counters,  all these oscillators drift  such that the counter reading decreases.

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------


_________________________________________________________________
Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that’s right for you.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/?ocid=ftp_val_wl_290