[time-nuts] What sort of oscillator is this?

Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd) drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk
Sun Sep 28 21:43:42 EDT 2014


On 29 Sep 2014 02:05, "Tom Miller" <tmiller11147 at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Dave, do you have access to a good counter?

Not really.

I have an HP 70000 modular measurement system,  which has all the bits for
a 22 GHz spectrum analyzer. The analyzer has a frequency counter mode, but
I have not written any software to grab data from it.

However,  I once had a contract where I wrote some code to collect data
from another HP 70000 system,  so it should be a fairly easy thing to do. I
am not sure how well it works as a frequency counter.

I do have an 18 GHz counter, but it doesn't have a high stability
oscillator,  has no GPIB and has an intermittent fault.

The 70000 series has the optional high stability time base, which is
definitely an oven. A red light comes up when the oven is cold.

BTW, for the 70000 series you need to have the oven in order to lock the
system to an external reference.  One of the options for the high stability
time base is to delete the oven. Strangly some eBay sellers have been known
to have both and ask more for the one which has the option which deletes
the oven!

> If so, you could profile the warm-up characteristic of the reference from
a cold start.

I will try to do that. It might take me a bit of time as I need to do some
things that earn me money.  They are of somewhat higher priority!

Dave


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