[time-nuts] Maser 0.7 nsec jumps solved

[Bob Camp]

Hi

That’s a pretty good example for the “why you don’t do your timescale based on 
a single brand of gear / single setup” file. 

Thanks for sharing!!

Bob


> On May 21, 2016, at 9:58 PM, Jim Palfreyman <jim77742 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Awhile back I posted about some mysterious 0.7 ns jumps in three different
> masers (of the same brand) at three different locations around Australia.
> 
> Well we think we've found the problem. All three locations also have
> in-room air conditioners of the same brand. These are used for cooling
> only. When these units turn on, we think they induce a magnetic field from
> the inrush current that briefly disrupts the maser. We don't think it's
> electrical because moving to another phase did not change things.
> 
> These air conditioners are all quite close to the masers. Typically a metre
> or 2 away.
> 
> Much was done to discover this, but the clincher was that when the weather
> cooled enough at the southern most location (Hobart), we turned off the air
> con (only heating was needed) and the problem vanished.
> 
> So there's a lesson here for all maser owners. The jump of 0.7 nsec is not
> much, but it's huge for VLBI and for time-nuts.
> 
> 
> Jim Palfreyman
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