Re: [time-nuts] E1938A PN measurments

2012-09-30 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
variation as there is for aging and Allan Deviation? Ed On 9/30/2012 11:03 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote: I recently modified an old 10811 to bring out the crystal leads on miniature coax (instead of having them connect to the oscillator circuit). This allowed me to measure the crystal's

Re: [time-nuts] E1938A PN measurments

2012-09-30 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 9/30/2012 2:20 PM, Magnus Danielson wrote: With two such offset 10811s you could use DMTD methods or for that matter cross-correlation phase noise measures to more directly measure the units. That way you would have avoided the golden unit issue, since the phase noise of those would

Re: [time-nuts] E1938A PN measurments

2012-09-30 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Sorry I have never seen those statistics. Rick On 9/30/2012 2:23 PM, ewkeh...@aol.com wrote: Rick I have some 10811's all below 1 E-12 in the 1 to 100 sec. range, a few as low as 4 E-13 at 10 seconds. How low have you seen, I have the opportunity to test 40+ units and hope to find a few even

Re: [time-nuts] E1938A PN measurments

2012-09-29 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
The E1938A uses a crystal that is basically the same as the 10811 crystal except that it is in a reduced height package. However the phase noise is not as good as a 10811 due to broadband noise in the automatic frequency control circuit. By the time I discovered this, it was too late to try to

Re: [time-nuts] Zero-Crossing Detector Design?

2012-09-16 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 9/16/2012 12:03 PM, Gerhard Hoffmann wrote: Am 20.07.2012 00:57, schrieb Richard (Rick) Karlquist: A fast comparator seems like a good idea, and it is simple, however it is actually the last thing you want to use. High thermal sensitivity and high jitter. Rick On 7/19/2012 1:35 PM, Dan

Re: [time-nuts] SC Cut

2012-09-11 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
The SC cut crystal is generally credited to Jack Kusters (of HP) and Errol Ernisse. The story was something like Errol proposed the concept and Jack actually made the first one, which was quite non-trivial. Jack used to joke that SC stood for Santa Clara. (Jack and I worked for the old HP Santa

Re: [time-nuts] SC Cut

2012-09-11 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
, and I have attended many FCS's. I don't know how you prove to the Wiki police that there is no paper predating EerNisse's paper. Maybe there is a patent on it. On 9/11/2012 2:22 PM, jim s wrote: On 9/11/2012 10:01 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote: The SC cut crystal is generally credited

Re: [time-nuts] oscillators

2012-08-29 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 8/27/2012 11:45 PM, WB6BNQ wrote: A microprocessor controlled XO is a non oven crystal oscillator system that has additional computational control providing a bit more than just mere passive temperature compensation. The additional computational capability deals with having coefficients

Re: [time-nuts] Zero-Crossing Detector Design?

2012-07-22 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 7/22/2012 2:41 PM, Bob Camp wrote: Hi The feedback inverter is indeed a problem with fast logic, just bias it to mid point off the supply instead. 1. Do not use CMOS inverters. Even though so much has been published on using these in linear mode by adding a feedback resistor, they

Re: [time-nuts] Zero-Crossing Detector Design?

2012-07-19 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
A fast comparator seems like a good idea, and it is simple, however it is actually the last thing you want to use. High thermal sensitivity and high jitter. Rick On 7/19/2012 1:35 PM, Dan Kemppainen wrote: Or use a fast comparator such as an ADCMP600 series. Much lower delays, and faster

Re: [time-nuts] HP 10811 Response I Replies

2011-09-22 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 9/22/2011 5:17 PM, ws at Yahoo wrote: Within minutes the frequency changed more than the spec For humidity to get thru something like that it takes weeks or more it does it at all. That fast of reaction, Sure sounds like some other effect like blowing a little air on the case or loading the

Re: [time-nuts] Sine to LVDS

2011-09-09 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
This article was in the PTTI proceedings around 1990. Highly recommended. Rick Karlquist On 9/9/2011 6:58 AM, Jim Lux wrote: On 9/9/11 6:37 AM, ehydra wrote: Hi Bruce - Do you have a reference to read on for this? I imagine that's the standard cascade of limiters used in zero crossing

Re: [time-nuts] SI Unit Problems

2011-04-05 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
And you are being redundant, by saying SI system which is like saying International System System. Also see PIN number :-) Rick On 4/5/2011 2:22 PM, ehydra wrote: For me it looks like this guy hates SI system. There are many out there. How cares? The problems arise if systems get mixed up

Re: [time-nuts] HP E1938A EFC slope

2011-03-11 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Higher voltage on the EFC corresponds to higher frequency. Rick Karlquist N6RK E1938A designer On 3/11/2011 9:00 AM, Allwright, Mark wrote: Hi. I am looking for the slope of the EFC voltage for a HP E1938A (positive or negative). I found the other parameters I am looking for but this one

[time-nuts] AD9913 programmable modulus DDS. was: Re: An (unknown?) nasty feature of the DDS principle for time nuts applications

2011-01-25 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
What you need is the AD9913. It has a programmable modulus. Now you're not stuck with 2^32. You can pick any convenient value. Rick Karlquist N6RK On 1/25/2011 5:37 AM, Ulrich Bangert wrote: Gentlemen, the pros and cons of DDS chips and how to improve them have been discussed here from time

Re: [time-nuts] Silicon Labs series of oscillators...

2011-01-22 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 1/22/2011 6:04 AM, Michael Baker wrote: I have a need for a 110 MHz VCXO in a 1.8GHz to 7.5GHz tracking generator I am building for my Tek 494 spectrum analyzer. I bought a pair of Silicon Labs 110 MHz VCXO chips for less than $25 for the pair from Cramer Distributors.

Re: [time-nuts] CS reservoir depletion

2011-01-12 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
This is a popular FAQ that Cs engineers hear. The correct answer (at least for HP/Agilent CBTs) is that there is plenty of Cs in the tube, and they don't fail because they ran out of Cs. Something else will always wear out first. Regarding the general idea of rebuilding CBT's: a used CBT is

Re: [time-nuts] Oscillator Packaging

2011-01-07 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 1/7/2011 5:22 PM, Tom Van Baak wrote: Has anyone experimented with the amount of insulation on a 10544 or 10811 oscillator? They are meant to run hot by design and I worry that adding any insulation, or too much insulation, will either cause over-heating or limit the ability of the oven

Re: [time-nuts] What is the best way to multiply a 10 Mhz

2010-12-22 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 12/21/2010 10:11 PM, Bernd Neubig wrote: Hi Rick, I have a problem to imagine how you connect the LO and RF port of a mixer in series and drive it (the IF port?) with a ... sine wave. Can you send me a sketch of this arrangement please? Tnx a lot! Best regards Bernd Neubig DK1AG Good

Re: [time-nuts] What is the best way to multiply a 10 Mhz

2010-12-22 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Clarification of my previous posting: The IF output of the ASK-1 should be pins 2 and 5, not pins 4 and 5. The LO input of the ASK-1 is pins 1 and 3. The RF input of the ASK-1 is pins 4 and 6. This is not obvious from the data sheet. You can wire these two ports in series any way you like,

Re: [time-nuts] what is the best way to multiply a 10 Mhz signal?

2010-12-21 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
I used to be in the synthesizer business (Zeta Labs) in a previous life. I learned to ask the customers: what you are trying to accomplish as the end goal, before tackling a messy problem like multiplying by 7. Maybe you don't need to multiply by 7, but we can't tell from your question. Rick

Re: [time-nuts] Changing frequency of an HP 10811 oscillator

2010-11-22 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Several issues here: 1. Making a precision crystal like the 10811 one is very involved. It cannot simply be rescaled to a different frequency. It represents a whole new design. This is not like ordering custom crystals for your 2 way radio (back in the day). 2. The 10.23 MHz crystals I am

Re: [time-nuts] 5 and 10 MHz crystal filters

2010-11-15 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
A friendly warning about crystal filters. Crystals, whether used in an oscillator or filter, have intrinsic phase noise. You cannot improve the phase noise of a crystal oscillator with a crystal filter unless the filter crystals have lower phase noise than the oscillator crystals. In general,

[time-nuts] 10.23 MHz SC cut 10811 compatible crystals available

2010-11-14 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Someone was asking about SC cut crystals to play with. I have a few dozen 10.23 MHz SC cut crystals that are interchangeable with 10811 10 MHz crystals, except for the frequency difference. They were made for a GPS version of the 10811 that never saw the light of day. Any interest in these?

Re: [time-nuts] Most precise clock ever created - here we go again

2010-10-29 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
I would call this gadget more of a time interval analyzer than a clock. Rick Karlquist N6RK On 10/29/2010 1:01 PM, JULIAN TOPOLSKI wrote: Researchers at Fermilab are building a “holometer” so they can disprove everything you thought you knew about the universe. More specifically, they are

Re: [time-nuts] HP 10811

2010-10-19 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
I think you should probably be fine at 18V. The oven will run down to at least 15V and maybe 12V. Rick Karlquist N6RK On 10/19/2010 5:27 AM, ewkeh...@aol.com wrote: I plan on replacing the Xtal Osc. of my HP 5062C with a HP 10811 since I have a few ones with AV less than 1E-12 from 1 to 100

Re: [time-nuts] Subject: Re: Meter face for HP-4805A

2010-10-12 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 10/12/2010 8:11 AM, gsteinb...@aol.com wrote: Just a quick note... HP was quite proud that scales for their precision meters were individually produced for each movement on a custom made servo controlled photographic calibrator. An archive might be nice but won't provide the

Re: [time-nuts] Possible HP 10811 instability clue

2010-10-06 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Regardless of isolated anecdotal data on one oscillator, it is probably not advisable to change the set point. The majority of 10811 crystals do NOT have a turnover, only a region of low tempco around 82 degrees. Instead of that, change the circuit to B-mode and optimize the heat between the two

Re: [time-nuts] Small quantity custom crystals

2010-10-01 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
On 9/30/2010 12:43 PM, Alan Melia wrote: Mark to my inexpert eye that doesnt look like a very good overtone oscillator but I appreciate that it is slimmed down to keep the weight and size down, I can see why it is touchy. There is nothing to make the oscillator degenerate at the crystal

Re: [time-nuts] OT: xtal osc PN

2010-09-18 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
A couple of disclaimers here: 1. Leeson's oscillator model was mentioned. That doesn't apply much to crystal oscillators. The close in noise will be limited by the intrinsic noise of the crystal and the far out noise will be limited by the buffer amplifier. Leeson's model never comes into

Re: [time-nuts] Homebrew Rubidium oscillator, jitter and other tales :-)

2010-08-07 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
ulm...@vaxman.de wrote: blinked. This problem was eventually solved by driving the LED with a discrete transistor instead of a free 74AC14 gate and decoupling this driver with an RC-combination. CMOS logic gates have a totem pole output that is famous for overlap where both transistors on

Re: [time-nuts] A different timenuts interest

2010-07-21 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Hal Murray wrote: Several years ago, I found a web site for a commercial place that made them for museums. (I forget why I was looking for that sort of stuff.) You might find interesting stuff/ideas via google but I didn't find a similar site with a bit of searching. The Museum of

Re: [time-nuts] RF Prescaler for 53131A/53132A/53181A counters - update !

2010-07-08 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Samuel DEMEULEMEESTER wrote: Right now, the performance is really good up to 3.5 GHz : 50 MHz : -7 dB 100 MHZ : -15 dB 250 MHz : -26 dB 500 MHz : -30 dB 1 GHZ : -32 dB 2 GHz : -32 dB 3 GHz : -30 dB The real deal on the performance of prescalers is the ability to count noisy sources. If

Re: [time-nuts] Flood of low end priced VNAs on FleeBay

2010-06-02 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
We have a bunch of sweepers at work, and many of the them have died and can't be fixed. The only way they can be repaired is to cannibalize one to fix another, assuming they don't have the same bad module. We have given away an 8510 to a school and have others gathering dust. Rick jimlux

Re: [time-nuts] HP 11729C versus 11848A

2010-05-07 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
What the 10811 production line did was to compare two 10811's to each other by driving a high level mixer. Anzac AM-123 amplifiers were used to increase the output level of the 10811's. You can homebrew the AM-123 if you read the patent and can get a 2N5109/2N5943 type of transistor. Amplify

Re: [time-nuts] 5370B OCXO

2010-03-12 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Bob Camp wrote: Hi Tough to believe that HP worried a lot about SKU inflation back when they did the 5370 :) I'm assuming that the 5370 was a Santa Clara design. That would put the counter designers down the hall from the oscillator factory. Unlikely that there was a communications gap

Re: [time-nuts] HP10811 taxonomy?

2010-03-11 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
It is entirely possible that a 10544 could have excellent aging and beat a 10811. The SC cut doesn't improve aging. The other disadvantages of the 10544 in terms of electronics also don't affect aging. The main advantage of the 10811 is that it is much better from a cold start in an

Re: [time-nuts] nubie querie

2010-03-05 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Don Collie jnr wrote: I`m not sure that questions like these is welcome on this list, but here goes anyway : 1/ What are the the 10 sources of the most constant [invariant] frequencies known to man, in order of decreacing constancy? Four immediately come to mind. I vaguely remember reading

Re: [time-nuts] 74AC gates phase noise

2010-02-26 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Bruce Griffiths wrote: Only if the noise figure of the following amplifier is 4dB or so. With no extra amplification is used one only needs a signal level of +1dBm to achieve a phase noise floor of -178dBc/Hz if the output is extracted through the crystal in such a way that the thermal

Re: [time-nuts] 5071A question

2010-02-24 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
When the 5071A product line was sold to Symmetricom ~4 years ago, the production manager and his team of 15 moved with the product. The manager left Symmetricom a few years ago, and recently most of the rest of the team left Symmetricom. The 5071A will now be made on the east coast at the

Re: [time-nuts] Rb Oscillator - rather fundamental question

2010-02-23 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
David C. Partridge wrote: Cough - the rubidium clock or oscillator does have an intrinsic frequency, which is the rubidium hyperfine transition of 6 834 682 610.904 324 Hz, it's just that the frequency generated by the transition in question isn't used to DEFINE the second, so by definition,

Re: [time-nuts] HP10811 losing EFC

2010-01-15 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
paul swed wrote: Or simply fuse externally with a reasonable fuse holder and fuse. No, you don't understand. It is a THERMAL fuse. It must be IN the oven to do any good. There is definitely no excess room inside of the 10811 to add a fuse holder. Rick Karlquist N6RK

Re: [time-nuts] ad-hoc I/O

2009-08-28 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
The XT-Nano-XXL looks very interesting, and the price is good. With these kinds of hardware devices, the question always arises as to what to use on the other end to talk to the device. I see that ak-nord has a virtual com port driver, which many vendors have. It would also be interesting to

Re: [time-nuts] Best way for generating 8994.03 MHz from 2899.00042272.....MHz?

2009-08-17 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Lux, Jim (337C) wrote: microwave frequency down to where it can be compared with the reference. You can do a straight divider, but then, the number of divide ratios is limited, because fast dividers tend to be powers of two, or, at best, small integers. Generally true, but Centellax has a

Re: [time-nuts] Methods for comparing oscillators

2009-07-30 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
You really need to mix down to a low frequency beat note as in the HP5390 system. There is a huge increase in sensitivity by doing that. It is not difficult to make a mixer circuit. Rick Karlquist N6RK John Green wrote: I've been hanging around and reading long enough to understand that when

Re: [time-nuts] Distribution Amp project

2009-07-30 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Dave M wrote: I haven't been able to find schematics for the Extron DA, but according to the author's discussion, it seems to be very similar to the DA circuit schematics at http://www.ko4bb.com/~bruce/IsolationAmplifiers.html. I haven't had time to reverse engineer the circuit in my

Re: [time-nuts] 10811 crystal orientation

2009-07-09 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Bob Camp wrote: Hi I think that if you dig into it, you will find that there is a polarized light process to orient the blank before the base plate is applied. Unfortunately for the discussion at hand, the direction of maximum G sensitivity is still random relative to the mount. Bob

Re: [time-nuts] HP10544A Confusion

2009-05-29 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Jim Flanagan wrote: after warmup, I need to tweak the temp for a freq MIN. Whereas, for an SC cut xtal osc we would be looking for a freq MAX. For both xtal cuts the turning point is typically set for somewhere in the 75 - 85 C range. I see Jim jf...@tampabay.rr.com The majority of

Re: [time-nuts] 5070B once more.... (actually 5370A fans)

2009-05-21 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Mark Sims wrote: I have done quite a bit of work replacing fans in old equipment with modern fans. I have never seen a case where replacing a hurricane level fan with a whisper quiet fan made any real difference in the cooling inside the unit... typically one sees less than +/- 5C

Re: [time-nuts] femtosecond jitter anyone?

2009-04-14 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Bruce Griffiths wrote: Some ECL devices have jitter specs in the 100 to 200fsec range. see: http://www.onsemi.com This is misleading. While it is true that they have this low jitter at multi-Gb/s rates, the jitter is much greater than this at lower clock rates. At 10 MHz, ECL devices

Re: [time-nuts] HP 1938 revisited

2009-04-13 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
J. L. Trantham wrote: Thanks for the info. My plan is to develop a stable GPS disciplined reference suitable for use as a reference for Microwave work in the 10 GHz range that can be used in portable locations with relatively quick start up. Perhaps the 1938 would be better in the shop

Re: [time-nuts] HP 1938 revisited

2009-04-12 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
wje wrote: Fluke.l (China) was selling a number of 1938's on Ebay. I snagged one just to have a piece of HP history. It works just fine, but I've noticed something a little strange. Comparing the 1938 to both my cesium and GPS standards, there's a distinct periodic 1ns phase shift every

Re: [time-nuts] HP 1938 revisited

2009-04-12 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
J. L. Trantham wrote: I, too, snagged one of these since it has the reputation of being the ultimate achievement of crystal oscillator technology with the goal of Thanks, we thought it was pretty good :-) Toward that end, since it takes a few minutes for the 1938 to 'lock', is there a

Re: [time-nuts] Ultra low noise Pierce oscillator???

2009-01-17 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
I would like to add some perspective to this discussion. The 10811 oscillator simply uses a plain vanilla Pierce circuit configured so that one terminal of the crystal is at ground. The base emitter capacitor is replaced by a mode suppression network to force operation to the correct overtone and

Re: [time-nuts] What is a Time-Nut grade Zero Crossing Circuit?

2008-07-31 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
John Miles wrote: Modern ECL parts aren't necessarily that bad compared to the old MECL stuff. My experience goes all the way back to the MECL 1000 series that was discontinued 30 years ago. I designed many synthesizers around them for Zeta Labs. Every newer family of ECL line receivers

Re: [time-nuts] humidity sensitivity of 10811

2008-07-22 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Moderate humidity changes caused frequency shifts on the order of parts in 10^9. With the environmental chamber on full throttle, I saw parts in 10^8. The E1938A has an unmeasurable humidity coefficient, even unsealed. Rick Karlquist N6RK Jim Lux wrote: Some mention has been made recently of

Re: [time-nuts] Double ovened 10811-60158 on ebay

2008-07-12 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Didier Juges wrote: The designers of the HP E1938 (which never went to full production) went through pains to try and keep the gradient evenly distributed precisely for that reason. My guess is that it you take the cover out from the E1938, you will find a perfectly symmetrical layout

Re: [time-nuts] Double ovened 10811-60158 on ebay

2008-07-11 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Well, the good news is (if you buy one of these) is that the worst that can happen is that you unwrap all that 2nd oven junk and you are left with a 10811 for $50. I remember when they were designing that double oven 10811. There are so many things wrong with the design that I wouldn't know

Re: [time-nuts] Piezo Little Wonder OCXO

2008-05-30 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Early GPS receivers used a 10.23 MHz time base. Probably related to 2^10-1. Some GPS manufacturers approached HP about making a 10811 on 10.23 MHz. There is a circuit modification for 10.23 MHz and some crystals were made (I have some somewhere). However, I don't believe any 10.23 MHz 10811's

Re: [time-nuts] Fast frequency counting question

2008-05-06 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Now we have gotten to the crux of the matter. You have to decide on one of two approaches: 1. The zero crossing is what is to be measured. In this case, you have to retain all harmonics. You cannot use most of the traditional frequency counting techniques. You must sample the zero crossing

Re: [time-nuts] Zeta Labs X76 Multiplier 7600 MHz Output Model 5856-01

2008-04-28 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
This is a complicated question. First of all, there is definitely no crystal filter involved. However, the multiplier can have its own phase noise due to either the amplifier or the SRD. There can also be AM to PM conversion and vice versa. I have found the technique of multiplying a source to

Re: [time-nuts] Disciplining Rubidium

2008-04-24 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
I have some Wenzel OCXOs that hit 5E-13 for a 1 second tau. No Rb or Cs or Z3801 that I have running get that good at 1 sec tau! Over 10,000 is a different matter, however. -Brian, WA1ZMS That level of performance is about average for an HP 10811 and some are considerably better. 1

Re: [time-nuts] Close-in phase noise measurements

2008-03-30 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
The relationship between phase noise and Allan variance is a complex one and was described in papers at FCS in 1976 and 1978 by my previous manager Mike Fischer (then of HP). I think these papers come closest to answering your question. Rick Karlquist Jeff Mock wrote: This is a half-baked idea

[time-nuts] HP 5334B C-channel--was Re: Which HP Frequency Counter?

2008-03-20 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
I was the project manager and chief EE on the HP5334B project. The 5334A had a C channel using an HP made divide by 10 prescaler that had a factory cost of ~$100. In the 5334B, I replaced this with the Fujitsu MB506 divide by 8 prescaler, which cost something like $2. The firmware was changed

Re: [time-nuts] Crystal question

2008-02-24 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
I have been told the rotated cut is incompatible with etching, due to anisotropy. Rick Karlquist N6RK Jim Miller wrote: In my web travels so far including the NIST papers I've yet to run across a crystal fabricated as both an SC cut and inverted mesa. Are these two properties incompatible

Re: [time-nuts] Aging rate of crystals

2008-02-18 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
The long term aging rate is due entirely to the crystal, for all practical purposes, for any well designed oscillator circuit (or even a mediocre design). The aging of the crystal is basically not predictable. It's like the famous saying by J P Morgan when asked what the stock market will do: It

Re: [time-nuts] Aging rate of crystals

2008-02-17 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
At the beginning of the E1938A project, I did a bunch of characterization of 10811 oscillators. At the Santa Clara Division, we had first class environmental test chambers with heating, cooling, humidification, de-humidification, and nitrogen purge. The nitrogen was also available for fast

Re: [time-nuts] Allan variance Vs Plain Old Accuracy

2008-02-14 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Modern counters have interpolators (now called time to digital converters) that can measure fractions of a cycle. Even the old Agilent 53132, designed 15 years ago, measures any frequency to 12 significant figures in one second. For example, it will display 10 MHz to .1 Hz using a 1 second

Re: [time-nuts] Generation of very stable 10.001MHz for heterodyne freq measurement

2008-01-25 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
See: http://www.karlquist.com/FCS95.pdf Or look at the 1995 FCS proceedings. Rick Karlquist John Ackermann N8UR wrote: Anders Time said the following on 01/25/2008 07:23 AM: What is the best way to generate a very stable 10.001MHz(low E-13 or -110dBc/1Hz) to be to do high resolution

Re: [time-nuts] xtal oscillator phase noise

2008-01-02 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Not really, it's the circuit topology determines whether a parallel or series resonant crystal is used. Your circuit appears to be a variant Just a comment about series vs parallel. The 10811 has a parallel resonant circuit and the E1938A has a series resonant circuit. The crystals used

Re: [time-nuts] xtal oscillator phase noise, parallel versus series

2008-01-02 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
I forgot to mention that the crystals for the E1938A had to be calibrated for series resonance at 10 MHz. Rick Karlquist N6RK Didier Juges wrote: I think the main difference between parallel and series resonance is that in parallel resonance mode, the capacitance of the crystal holder and

Re: [time-nuts] xtal oscillator phase noise

2008-01-01 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
In the HP 10816 Rb frequency standard, we used a modified 10811 oscillator circuit. The oscillator and first buffer amplifier transistor were the same, but the rest of the buffer amplifier was replaced with a cascaded grounded base buffer amplifier. We were able to get numbers comparable to

Re: [time-nuts] NLTL comb generators going away...

2007-12-28 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
The SRD (step recovery diode) definitely degrades the phase noise beyond 20 LOG N, according to Agilent engineers I have talked to. They mentioned a number like -150 dBc/Hz or something. Having said that, you also have to be very careful to design the driver (especially with NLTL) or it will

Re: [time-nuts] evaluation of 5071a(hp)

2007-12-22 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
From what I remember from the years I worked on the 5071A is that the prognosis for CBT's in long term storage is very poor. The Navy had to scrap a bunch of them due to this problem. I vaguely remember that the pressure got too high for the ion pump to start. If it does start, I think ion

Re: [time-nuts] Super stable BVA Quartz resonators... BVA??

2007-12-08 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
We did a lot of characterization of crystal temp vs freq in the E1938 development and never observed any aging of these curves. Even on green crystals with zero run time. Rick Karlquist N6RK Jeff Mock wrote: Thanks for the description, it is very interesting. I have a follow up question if

Re: [time-nuts] Super stable BVA Quartz resonators... BVA??

2007-12-07 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Coincidentally, I just learned today that the E1983A is still being made by an OEM called Scotts Valley Magnetics. Rick Karlquist N6RK Magnus Danielson wrote: Is the E1938 commercially available? If not, is there a followup? Cheers, Magnus

Re: [time-nuts] Super stable BVA Quartz resonators... BVA??

2007-12-07 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
? If phase noise or short term stability encompasses frequency jumps, how can I estimate the size of frequency jumps from those specifications? Didier -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard (Rick) Karlquist Sent: Friday, December

Re: [time-nuts] Super stable BVA Quartz resonators... BVA??

2007-12-07 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
blow smoke really well. Didier KO4BB -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard (Rick) Karlquist Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 10:45 AM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Super

Re: [time-nuts] Super stable BVA Quartz resonators... BVA??

2007-12-07 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Reminds me of the SC cut crystal. It either means Stress Compensated or Santa Clara, where it was discovered :-) The BVA has been around for a long time and you would think that if there was really something to it, everybody would be making them. Of course, they are very difficult to make. Rick

Re: [time-nuts] Cesium Oscialltors and Low Phase Noise Frequency Standard

2007-12-06 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Why do you say there's room for another supplier? 5 years ago there were 3 suppliers, but Agilent sold out to Symmetricom. What unmet need are you proposing to fill? What is the short term stability (sigma-sub-y-of-tau) of your world class oscillator? Rick Karlquist (RF designer for the 5071A

Re: [time-nuts] Improving the stability of crystal oscillators

2007-10-11 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
Neville Michie wrote: I am not trying to start an argument, but I would like to point out that PID controllers are only good at controlling a certain class of system. The thermal block controllers work well because of the dominant integrating effect of the block, the time delay for a

Re: [time-nuts] Improving the stability of crystal oscillators

2007-10-11 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] RETRY The 10811 has an ANALOG oven control loop. The gain is set to be just below the oscillation point. This is due to the stability limits dictated by the oven mass and (believe it or not) the size of integrator capacitor that

Re: [time-nuts] E1938

2007-10-02 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
The labels may or may not be significant. If the frequency is indeed -2.94 Hz at 2.5V EFC, you could probably get it back to 10 MHz by increasing the EFC voltage. You can also decrease the bridge capacitor to bring the frequency up if necessary. The factory was supposed to choose the capacitor

Re: [time-nuts] 10811A

2007-09-14 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] RETRY Hi Mike. I work for Agilent, and HP before that, at the old Santa Clara Division, where the 10811 was made. The 10811 Manual, published ~25 years ago, was never in electronic form within the company. The 10811 was only a

Re: [time-nuts] HP 5370B low frequency modulation

2007-08-30 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] RETRY Gold mixes with solder to from an intermetallic that suffers from embrittlement. I am not aware of silver solder being a remedy. I have heard of assembly lines that do not allow any gold whatsoever in the building! I heard

Re: [time-nuts] E1938 phase noise

2007-08-27 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] RETRY E1938A phase noise should be similar to 10811, possibly even a little better far out. Short term stability should be similar to 10811 except down around 1 second, where the AFC circuit degrades it a little to 10^11 or so. The

Re: [time-nuts] Cs stability

2007-07-17 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case anyone still doesn't know who I am, I need to mention that I designed the RF electronics in the 5071A in an earlier life, circa 1990. Now that we have that out of the way, I will agree with Magnus that the cited paper is

Re: [time-nuts] HP5370A vs HP5370B...

2007-07-04 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] I don't know the specifics of this case, but often the model number suffix was incremented just to obsolete the existing installed base. Once obsoleted, the clock started to run on the support life (typically 5 years). Keep in mind

Re: [time-nuts] Neat toys on eBay for PN measurement

2007-07-03 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Basically this is a general-purpose microwave downconverter whose LO uses harmonics of the 640-MHz reference output from an 8662A/8663A to downconvert the signal to be measured to a frequency below 1280 MHz, where it is then

Re: [time-nuts] HP E1938 oscillator

2007-06-17 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] HP E1938 oscillator Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote: AFAIK, there is no manual on the E1938 (in the sense of the 10811 manual). And I should know. I am attempting to compile what information I have and get it archived on line somewhere. Can you

Re: [time-nuts] FW: HP E1938 oscillator

2007-06-17 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
I have now read all email regarding the oscillator distribution. It appears there are nearly 3 times as many requests as oscillators. I will be implementing a selection process soon, and get back to you at that time. Rick Karlquist N6RK -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: [time-nuts] HP E1938 oscillator

2007-06-15 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
to communicate. At least, I now know where my payment went. On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 21:33:34 -0700, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote: Bill's check, per his request, has been returned to him, uncashed. I guess he didn't think the E1938A was worth the wait. All E1938A email automatically goes

Re: [time-nuts] HP E1938 oscillator

2007-05-26 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
I still have dozens of surplus E1938A's if anyone wants one. They are in worked the last time it was turned on, but no guarantee of specs condition. I can't accept money for these units. Rick Karlquist N6RK E1938A circuit designer Due to the high level of interest, I may need to limit

Re: [time-nuts] HP E1938 oscillator

2007-05-26 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
I have a lot more info available that what is on this site. I will be gathering it up... Rick -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Tom Van Baak Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 2:14 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement

Re: [time-nuts] 10544A Oscillator Question

2007-02-10 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
I can confirm that the 10811 is guaranteed to work in any 10544A socket. In particular, the 10811 is designed to never draw more current than a 47 ohm resistor, to be backward compatible with the 10544. I don't know of any particular reason why a 10811 shouldn't work in a 10544 socket, except

[time-nuts] Powering up 10811 oven when disassembled

2007-02-03 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
This question had come up a few weeks ago. The service manual says not to power up the oven when the 10811 is disassembled for service. I talked to Dave Montgomery, former head technician on the 10811 line from its begining around 1980 until its end a few years ago. He said that it is OK to

Re: [time-nuts] 10811 Repair - Voltage Check

2007-01-24 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
The pins are made of some alloy such as kovar. I vaguely remember that you can solder to them if you really want to. I think the production people decided welding was easier for them. The stranded wires do have an annoying tendancy to break off if you flex them very much. There may have been a

Re: [time-nuts] Bad batch of HP10811's

2007-01-16 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
The oscillator and oven run on separate power supplies. Your posting is ambiguous. I don't know whether you are talking about the oscillator or the oven. Rick -Original Message- From: Jason Rabel [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 3:15 PM To: [EMAIL

Re: [time-nuts] Historical HP quartz oscillator manuals available

2006-09-27 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Richard (Rick) Karlquist Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 5:04 PM To: time-nuts@febo.com Subject: [time-nuts] Historical HP quartz oscillator manuals available I have the following manuals (original

[time-nuts] Historical HP quartz oscillator manuals available

2006-09-23 Thread Richard \(Rick\) Karlquist
I have the following manuals (original paper version): HP 100E HP 101A HP 103A HP 104AR HP 107AR/BR HP 115CR HP 117A Does anyone know if these have already been scanned and made available on the web? If not, I plan to see if the Agilent Library wants to scan them. They basically have a program

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