[time-nuts] Maser 0.7 nsec jumps solved

Jim Palfreyman jim77742 at gmail.com
Sun May 22 23:15:40 EDT 2016


As far as a remedy goes we are going to try a solid state relay that only
switches on at 0V in the AC waveform. This should slow the inrush current,
and hopefully the magnetic impulse.

If this doesn't work, then a better model of air conditioner might have to
be installed. These ones do come on with a big "thump".


Jim Palfreyman


On 22 May 2016 at 21:43, Magnus Danielson <magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org>
wrote:

> Jim,
>
> On 05/22/2016 03:58 AM, Jim Palfreyman 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.
>>
>
> Good that you have found the offender, but have you been able to remedy it
> by other means than turning the AC off?
> I think others H-maser owners would love to know, and potentially the
> vendor you have.
>
> Cheers,
> Magnus
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