I believe Corby came up with the bulb "rejuvenation".
If you tried to get a new bulb for a FRK, they wanted $400 in the late 1990s for them.
Several rubidium's are plentiful and cheap, it may be easier to buy one from the auction site.
I have a HP5065A, I run it when I need it, and when not in use, I power it up about every 3 months for a couple of days. On the HP unit, there is a flooding/pooling problem if the unit is not used.
On 11/14/2012 10:56 AM, Bob Smither wrote:
Do Rb oscillators wear out? I have found: "There are no "wear-out" or "use-up" mechanisms in a Datum Efratom Rubidium oscillator." -- Datum - Note About Rubidium Oscillators and "Atomic Vapor Oscillators have no wear out mechanism." -- FEI - Precison Oscillator Overview, 2007, p19. But also: "Unlike a quartz crystal oscillator which has no clearly-defined "wear out" period and, if well-designed, can actually improve as time goes on, a Rubidium reference has a definite lifetime associated with its lamp: As the unit operates, the Rubidium within the lamp is gradually consumed and eventually, too little vapor is available for the atomic resonance to be detected and the unit fails." -- http://www.ka7oei.com/10meg_rubidium1.html and The page at: http://www.oscilent.com/esupport/TechSupport/ReviewPapers/IntroQuartz/vigcomp.htm also mentions a wear out mechanism. and "These OCXOs maintain performance characteristics comparable to Rubidium oscillators without their high cost and inherent wear out," -- http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/2301-an-ocxo-with-rubidium-oscillator-performance Finally I found: "Problems with rubidium cell wear-out have been solved and manufacturers now offer essentially unlimited warranties against cell failure." --http://www.endruntechnologies.com/frequency-standard-oscillators.htm so maybe both points of view are correct? I recall seeing something about rejuvenating Rb oscillators on this list, so I suspect Clint is correct. Whose right? As a time-nut, do you leave your Rb oscillators on 24/7? Thanks, _______________________________________________ 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.
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