Elio, I have an FE-5650A, and am very pleased with it. Yes, it will operate on any frequency from 0 to nearly 20MHz, but I think it will depend on which option you get. Mine was an Opt 58 I think, which originally had outputs at 8.388688MHz and 1pps. It is now modified to add a serial link for control and a low level output (bypassing the peaked output amplifier/filter). If you buy one the same, I would be happy to send you my control software, although in truth it is easy to control with a terminal program or to write your own software.
The price you quoted sounds very good, and is cheaper than a GPSDO, unless you can find a used one from a Telco. I have several used ones, and the price in all cases was lower than the FE-5650A. If you want a new GPSDO, look at the Jackson Fury, as it is relatively inexpensive (but still at least twice the price you quoted for the FE-5650A). I would not recommend changing the DDS chip (which is an AD9832) for anything better. It would be a huge effort and the chances of success not good, and besides, the micro in there is intended to drive the AD9832. The AD9832 performs very well, and with a ~50MHz clock gives about 10mHz resolution. I don't have any trouble with spurious outputs, and the phase noise is quite good -145dBC at 1kHz, -125dBc at 100Hz. Not stunning, but still very useful. Yes, the unit does run quite hot. There is one face which is intended to be connected to a heat conducting surface. I am running mine with no heatsink, but do not usually run it for very long. I plan to rebuild including a small heat radiator and maybe a small computer fan. Regards, Murray ZL1BPU _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
