[time-nuts] Advice on a freq time standard.

[k6rtm at comcast.net]

Jerry-- 

We'll be happy to give you advice, and that advice will be worth every penny you've paid for it! 

Some of us on the list find a GPSDO (such as a thunderbolt, or Z3801A/58503A) quite adequate for providing time and frequency for racks of test gear. Add a distribution amp (such as the TAPR one) and you can serve 10 MHZ to lots of gear. With something like a tbolt and the Lady Heather program running on a spare PC, you'll have not only disciplined frequency, but a good time standard as well. 

You didn't say what you wanted to do as far as the ham gear was concerned. If it's providing a frequency standard to gear in the shack, a GPSDO should work well; one caveat being who wins when you transmit on the low bands such as 40 and 20 meters and RF is wandering about the shack. 

If you're looking for something to stabilize your 10 GHz and higher bricks while on mountain tops, a different answer may be better. I'll call myself a novice-time-nut, and offer my suggestion that a rubidium may be better for that kind of use, as once it warms up it will be on frequency and stay there; that warmup time is on the order of minutes, compared to the half hour or more for a GPSDO to figure things out. You could keep the rubidium trimmed with the shack GPSDO so it's pretty close when you need to haul it. 

As with ham radio, the price ranges associated with different levels of advice vary substantially. Watching the crazies on eBay can get you a good used rubidium for under $100, and a thunderbolt for about the same, or less if you're lucky. 

Then again, your own cesium standard might be nice... Don't know how it's going to interact with the Henry 4K in the corner of the room, but that's what makes these hobbies fun, right? 

73 bob k6rtm in not yet raining again silicon valley 
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Message: 8 
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2010 16:56:33 -0700 
From: Jerry <jreed123 at cox.net> 
Subject: [time-nuts] Advice on a freq time standard. 
To: time-nuts at febo.com 
Message-ID: 
<AANLkTimQkro7qfo+eF8ibYfdPkG-Ht=Won8C+NBa78J- at mail.gmail.com> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 

I am looking for a time/frequency standard for use with my ham radio 
and test equipment. There seem to be several surplus units available 
at inexpensive prices. I bought a Z3801A/58503A which would have meet 
my needs but had to return it when I found that the firmware would not 
control the outer oven. I am seeing Z3816A's and Tbird units that 
seem to be readily available at reasonable prices and I am wondering 
if I need to continue to look for a Z3801A with the HP 10811 OCXO or 
if either the Z3816A or the Tbird unit would be a good replacement to 
generate a 10 MHz signal with a 10 -12 spec locked to the GPS 
satellites. If either of these two are acceptable which is the best 
and are there any gotchas to look out for. Reading this group is 
being very informative and I would appreciate any suggestion. 

Thanks, Jerry W5RCQ 



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