[time-nuts] Atomic clocks and Wassenaar agreement

[Attila Kinali]

On Sun, 20 Aug 2017 11:28:17 +0000
"Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk at phk.freebsd.dk> wrote:

> >
> >As far as I can tell, there is no explicit mention of atomic
> >clocks.
> 
> There very much is:

Oops... missed that one. Sorry about that.
(I wonder how. I am sure I searched for "atomic")
 
> >But the list of dual use electronics is long and broad.
> >E.g. Section 3. A. 1. b. 10. covers basically all low noise
> >frequency sources. Including just a simple low-noise XO.
> >Does anyone have more specific knowledge?
> 
> Knowledge ?  No.  Some Experience ?  Yes.

My condolences. I only had to deal with ITAR as a buyer once.
That was enough for a lifetime.

> The people who wrote the list very much know why they put things
> onto it, and in the process of narrowly tailoring the restrictions
> often give more away than they probably should.


Yes. I skimmed through some of the electronic restrictions.
Given that a lot of SDR can be used in one of those ways listed,
it's damn easy to "accidentally" build something that has export
restrictions on it. 

> [1] I've always wondered about that rule and I suspect it is a
>     mistake.  Knowing who is on this list, I imagine that the next
>     revision will read the far more sensible: "Non-rubidium *or*
>     having ..."

Yes, singling out Rubidium is kind of weird.

Any guesses as for why?

			Attila Kinali

-- 
You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
They don't alters their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to
fit the views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the
facts that needs altering.  -- The Doctor