Dear Joe and Magnus,
Thank you both for your advise. I see that fisrt of all, the price for
the unit I am describing is far from reality. Just imagine that I have
been negotiating a lower price for the unit in this condition. They
were initially asking around $1.3K. Go figure!
Just for my peace of mind, I will visit the dealer again next week to
double check on everything you have mentioned. If the dealer is
willing to go down in price and I can take a better look, what could a
decent fair market price could be? I do not have enough information
from Ebay as to figure out a price and condition for an HP5065 unit.
Anyway, the instrument is not that bulky or heavy. I have imported
heavier and bigger amateur radio rigs and HP lab instruments from the
USA and could be better if I start looking for opportunities around
your latitude.
One more thing. What is the useful life of an instrument such as this
one? This is a beige version. Still something nearly my age! I assume
there are no replacements for the Rb cell other than probably trying
to restore it with focalized heated air like the smaller Rb modules so
available today.
Your comments again are welcome.
Thank you.
Regards,
Edgardo Molina
XE1XUS
On Jun 30, 2012, at 10:30 AM, J. L. Trantham wrote:
Edgardo,
The 5065A is a great unit but the price is over the top for a
questionable
unit. If fully meeting specs, the price is still very high, IMO.
The observations you report are likely simple repairs.
The great unknown is whether it will 'lock' or not? That is to say
will the
Continuous Operation light come on? The 'ovens' all typically go
full scale
pegged when initially turned on then come down 'on scale' when
warm. Photo
I will be 0 then come up as the lamp warms up. 2nd Harmonic comes
up as the
Rubidium Vapor Frequency Reference unit warms up. Once things are
on scale,
switch from Loop Open to Oper, push the Logic Reset button and the
Continuous Operation light should come on, assuming the 5 MHz
oscillator is
close to being on frequency.
Also, the indicator lamps are commonly burned out or the lenses are
missing.
There are easy to replace indicators that use the same bulb that you
can
install in place of the lamp assemblies if needed. I can send you
the part
numbers for these if needed.
Hope this helps.
Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On
Behalf Of Edgardo Molina
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2012 1:27 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [time-nuts] HP-5065a advise and purchase decision
Dear Group,
Good morning. I wish you well. This is my first post to the Time-Nuts
group. Please be gentle with the newbie ;)
I have been offered an HP 5065a Rubidium Frequency Standard recently
in what I feel, a bad operational condition. I need a reliable
rubidium standard for my time/frequency experiments, still I am in
doubt to invest in buying such and old beast. The general situation of
the instrument (for what I have been able to see from the first
inspection) is:
100 Khz output: Not working, noise coming out of it.
1Mhz output: Working, sine wave clean and not distorted, a couple of
frequency meters showing 1.0000030 Mhz in frequency, the oscilloscope
shows a transient pulse on top of the sine wave signal and affecting
the frequency readout instantly and then returning to the value
previously mentioned. Last digits vary sporadically.
5Mhz output: Working. sine wave clean but a little bit distorted when
ramping up. A couple of frequency counters showing 5.0000014 Mhz in
frequency. No transient pulses or other glitches around the output
signal. Last digits vary sporadically.
No lights coming up when the instrument turned on. No physical damage
of abuse on case or internal components. No options installed . A
couple of electrolytic caps replaced on some boards, no trace of burnt
PCB traces or visible damage to electronic components or physics
package. Haven't got the manual until today and was unable to check on
the front panel voltages to check on general health. As turning the
voltage test selector knob, voltage is shown for most positions,
except of course battery and the 100 Khz oscillator output. Some
voltage test positions get the instrument needle to go full scale and
out of range, other appear to be within scale.
I can perform a second visual and operational inspection today, this
time with a copy of the instrument manual. I will take my own trusted
frequency counter and portable digital storage oscilloscope. Would
really appreciate if I could receive comments from you experts to
evaluate if such a unit could be worth buying. The asking price is $1K
USD. Should I consider it an instrument that can be repaired and
serviced to show some decent performance? Or should I look somewhere
else to get a decent rubidium frequency standard.
Thank you beforehand for all your kind and expert comments.
Respectfully,
Edgardo Molina
Mexico City, Mexico
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