Hi We routinely get asked to "check the 5071A". We look at the lights and messages. We hook up a couple counters and a couple of GPSDO's. We look at it for a day. It's always doing what it's supposed to do..
Bob -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rick Karlquist Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 4:44 PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement Subject: Re: [time-nuts] MINOS Status on Measuring Neutrino Velocity Marvin Marshak wrote: > We have just started operating the HP5071A cesium clocks in the last few > days and are interested in suggestions for optimal operation and > monitoring of these units. The HP5071As can be controlled and read out > via a serial connection, and > the device has many operating parameters it can report. Which of those > parameters are most useful for long-term monitoring of the clock > stability? Are there subtle problems in using these units? I was on the R&D development team for the 5071A. To some extent, the monitoring of parameters was an after the fact add on. Some of them are truly useful, but some potentially useful parameters are not available because it would have been too much trouble to go back and instrument them, and there are other parameters that are not especially useful, but were included because we could easily measure them. Failure of a parameter is a pretty good indication that something is broken, but the mere fact of passing all the parameters is not a sure guarantee that everything is working. Also, if there is a failure, the parameters are not always useful in indicating which module is bad. Having said that, I have not heard of any subtle problems where a 5071 "worked OK" but was a little off in frequency. This kind of situation definitely happened with the 5061A/B, for example the "top cover effect" and the "silver tarnishing effect". The 5071A was a ground up design of everything but the CBT itself, and even that got some improvements. The best insurance policy is to have an ensemble of 5071A's with proper comparison facilities so that in the event one of them goes rogue, it can be "voted out" by the other units. Rick Karlquist N6RK _______________________________________________ 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. _______________________________________________ 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.
