[time-nuts] The future of Telecom Frequency Standard surplus

[Bob kb8tq]

Hi

The flip side of this is that the number of hardware junkies is not increasing. The
world is moving to software as the way to do things. As we all move on, our giant
piles of stuff will have to go to somebody (or the landfill). Most of this stuff is built
to last a *long* time. There are a few exceptions (Cs tubes). I’d bet that the net 
result is a pretty good availability on all these gizmos for a very long time. You may
not be buying 3 year old stuff, but there will still be stuff to buy. 

Bob

> On May 31, 2017, at 10:07 PM, paul swed <paulswedb at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Jerry that is indeed the likely reality. As more and more components become
> integrated into super chips it becomes impossible to repair or replace
> them. They are custom and proprietary to a company. Best of all the
> supporting software will be a subscription and of course since the company
> no longer supports the equipment the $1000/year subscription will no longer
> be available.
> So the experience you and I have had of getting pennies on the dollar or
> $/pound simply will not occur again. Thats what my crystal ball says at
> least.
> Not to be all down though. You can buy some pretty reasonable things these
> days scopes network analyzers and such. I just like my power sucking HP and
> Tek gear.
> Regards
> Paul
> WB8TSL
> 
> On Wed, May 31, 2017 at 8:53 PM, Jerry Hancock <jerry at hanler.com> wrote:
> 
>> Tom, Another question is will the surplus equipment have the same value to
>> the hobbyist?  I have a lot of old gear like spectrum analyzers, scopes,
>> signal generators, etc that was outdated and sold for cheap.  I keep
>> wondering if the same economics will apply to the equipment that is for
>> instance, currently selling for 40k, 50k or even higher, meaning will it
>> drop to pennies on the dollar like I paid for my 8566B?  For some reason I
>> don’t think it will.  If it does, it will be because some board that is
>> impossible to repair went to smoke.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On May 31, 2017, at 8:47 AM, Tom Knox <actast at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I think many of us Time-Nuts have played with the wide range of
>> frequency standards surplussed from the Telecom market.
>>> 
>>> My questions is, will the quality of future surplus offerings go up or
>> down as 4G and in the more distant future 5G surplus Frequency Standards
>> hit the market? It seems with higher data rates stability and phase noise
>> demands will increase, but will other advances find ways around the expense
>> of a high end Frequency Standard. I know some early telecom systems even
>> want as far as Cesium Standards, but more robust network tolerances seems
>> to have reduced the need for that level of performance. So which way are we
>> headed?
>>> 
>>> Any thought? I imagine some members are actually involved in design and
>> implementation of the next generation telecom technologies and will have
>> direct knowledge.
>>> 
>>> Thanks;
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Thomas Knox
>>> 1-303-554-0307
>>> actast at hotmail.com
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