[time-nuts] Lucent KS 24361 and Z 3816a Performance

ed briggs edbriggs at outlook.com
Fri Nov 7 14:44:58 EST 2014


I wanted to share an observation about my Z3816a which may be relevant to KS 24361 users.
Both units use the same oscillator and GPS receiver.   
 
When I first powered up my Z3816a, I noticed there were very infrequent Time Interval offset spikes
of 100 ns or more.  Once every 4 days to start, then once a week, then longer.    
 
Researching the time-nuts posting, I found others who had seen this and had offered different explanations, 
including bad GPS receiver,  damage to connections during transit, receiver overload, mistreatment by the surplus vendor.
 
In my case, it was neither of these. Simply allowing the unit to run for a month remove all the spikes. In my Z3816a now shows a predicted uncertainty in the 100-200ns/24 hour range. No spikes.  
 
So, if you see similar spikes on your KS 24361, you might want to resist the urge to power it off and 'try stuff' until next month.  The oscillators in these units may not have been used on 12 years, and it maybe they need time (and a little controlled heat) to get comfortable in their new environment.
 
This is offered in the hope it may save some unnecessary head-scratching, and not as a refutation of alternative  theories.
 
Ed
 
 
 		 	   		  


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