[time-nuts] Agilent 53230A Counter

Rick Karlquist richard at karlquist.com
Sat Mar 10 16:23:52 UTC 2012


Adrian wrote:
> Hello,
>
> just wondering if anyone has tried the new Agilent 53230A counter?

Disclaimer:  I work for Agilent and I get a "discount" on the counter :-)

It has a nice user interface (way better than the previous
generation that is now 20 years old) and a handy data logging function
to a memory stick that you plug into the front panel.  Allan deviation
is built in.  That's the good stuff.

The bad stuff:  don't waste your money on the fancy time base.
It is NOT a 10811 and doesn't compare stability wise.  What I
had to do was use the 10811 in my HP8662 as a time base.

With the 10811, the counter is quite good for measuring Allan deviation.
The most rigorous test I can run on it is to compare two 10811's.
The result seems to be commensurate with the 10811 noise, without
much contamination from the counter.

Rick Karlquist N6RK




More information about the time-nuts mailing list