I recently brought a 5071A out of mothballs and am trying to interpret its various operating currents, voltages and percentages as to the age of the tube, and remaining lifespan.
All values are near the bottom of scale. For example, PUMP is at 0.2 uA (0-40 uA range), and C-FIELD is at 12.162 mA (10-14.05 mA range), and others... etc.
Anyone know which value(s) tell me clues as to the relative age and remaining lifespan of the C-Beam tube? We use GPS and have multiple of them available, and Rubidiums. Just trying to decide how to use the C-Beam (not really needed much with GPS).
Anyone familiar with C-Beam numbers feel free to reply.
I also like that it has very good short term stability/accuracy. With the GPS you need long integration times to compensate for diurnal shifts/allan variances. C-Beam doesn't need that. It is overkill for most calibrations we do. But nice to have around.
I have an old one that has been running for years, not sure exactly but probably 20 at least.
Some of the info:
Pump 0.0 to 0.2 uA
Oven CS 5.6V/Osc -8.9V
Osc Freq Ctrl -13.6%
C-Field 12.165
Amp 36.9% 35.0
E Mult 1330V
Gain 14.4
This thing has been around many years,from Approx Nov 07 to Sep 2010 we ran it with a NIST FMAS montoring setup, it ran very well with offsets typically in parts to the -13.
I believe the AC power supply is weak, for several years now if it looses power I have to start it up on external DC and after it gets through power u/warm up I can pull the DC and it will continue on with AC, Won't start cold with AC.
as for the life of it I can't give you any info. Makes a fine clock though.
It says "Hewlett Packard" on the front, which puts it back at least to 1999 or so. It came from a recently closed facility. So not sure if it was running continuously or not. But when I started it up on AC power, within 30 minutes or so, I think, it came up to normal operation. WhatI'm not sure of is how to tell how much more life is left in the tube, or if you prolong its life by not running (or running) it. I haven't tested it against any NIST clocks.
Thanks for those inputs.