Just wondering if this is still in widesread use or is there something else for optimizing and checking drift on timebases.
Mine pooped out and it doesn't look like they are still around, I know they can be had used but wonder if something better has come along.
Using o-scope right now and while it works well enough it does take longer to measure when you are getting more accurate.
Symmetricom has some nice products. I know the Navy standardized on one of there systems to replace the older Tracor / freq diff meter..
Still have two working 527s..but the scope works..in fact, my QA prefers it...
Ah well...we're all getting old :-D
Mike
I feel so old. I remember when I used to do 30 day plots on Ball Efratom Rubidiums (for U.S. Army contract used in big depot test bays - while working at RCA Automated Systems which became G.E. Aerospace) I used a strip chart and compared against my souped up Cesium.... Aaaaahhhh.... those were the good old days (mid 80's).
Now... Hah! now I set my 53131A for about a 10 second gate time, externally referenced to my Agilent GPS receiver. Take a reading and come back in a week. I think you all know the rest of that story. If I can force myself to get a little technical before I take my morning meds, You can take periodic readings on a frequency counter externally referenced and slow gated (high resolution). note date and time on a sequence of readings. And you can calculate an aging rate that way (of course, implicitly, proper cook time depending on what time base option is being checked - and accounting properly for uncertainties).
Have I told you my 21 year old son today is on the set of "My Generation" filming here in central Texas. he scored an extra role. I'm waiting on pins and needles hoping he makes it into a final cut. If anyone is interested, once I find out, I'll post (proud father that I am) what episode, etc. No, not making it up. Sorry, off topic a little - but I'm pretty pre-occupied this morning.
Ah the days when the 141T was the ultimate spec an...
Mike
Has anyone ever done an IF alignment on an HP 8552A (the If module in the 141T). Quick story.... When I was in the USN Reserves, we shipped out of Little Creek VA on I think an LST (or something like that). IT's the ship with the big tailgate for launching LCU's and big berthing spaces for marine contingents. We hit the beach in Ile De La Vieques with the marines at the same time Clint Eastwood was there somewhere filming some scenes from "Heartbreak Ridge."
The A/C didn't work worth a darn in the berthing compartment. So another high techie type Electronic Tech and I (he had finished his BSEE degree and was working for AT&T Bell Labs doing R&D)... we went up to the Electronic Repair shop, and lo and behold, they had an HP 141T system (for you younger folks, it was an old school Spectrum Analyzer system, modular with different bandwidth RF sections that could be put in it. It wasn't phase locked like more modern Spec An's, so it drifted a LOT). I explained I was pretty good with the HP 141T and provided them with a 4 hour training session on it (none of the young active duty types even knew how to use a spectrum analyzer). Made me feel pretty good. Then they showed us one of their UHF transceiver systems that they couldn't figure out how to repair. I happened to have gone to an advance school on the particular model, as had the other reservist. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out the problem and another 15 to repair it. Based on those two little assists we gave them, they let us hang out in the electronic repair area for the entire trip down to the Caribbean with full use of the ships closed circuit TV system Betamax movie collection. Very nice trip. The end.