[time-nuts] Are there any company selling refurbished/reconditioned Cesium tubes?

[Taka Kamiya]

I think the replacement tube is around $20K.
I'm disappointment in a sense that I can't keep it running and use it everyday, and it's dead when the time comes.  I'm not disappointment about my purchase.  I found a working unit at a price I can afford.

Yes, I know about the Nobel prices and history, but perhaps not as well as you.  I guess there are many flavor of disappointment.  At the moment, I'm re-discovering my "amaze" with GPSDO.  Also, I have lots and lots (too many in fact) Rb units.  

These time things are being nice diversion from issues.  For that, I'm very pleased.
--------------------------------------- 
(Mr.) Taka Kamiya
I'm stuck in a wormhole....  Hello, worms! 

    On Sunday, June 30, 2019, 5:00:13 PM EDT, Tom Van Baak <tvb at LeapSecond.com> wrote:  
 
 I'm pretty sure you can still buy a new Cs tube for a hp 5071A. But the 
price is several tens of thousands. I've not found anyone selling 
replacement tubes for all the older Cs standards. Treat it like a 
ballpoint pen. It will end some day and you can't refill it. Worse, you 
can't really tell how much "ink" is left in the tube. Still, it's easy 
to swap in a new or used tube if you have it.

On eBay stay away from Cs standards with the "high performance" option. 
Yes, these tubes give you ~2x better stability -- but at the cost of ~4x 
the beam current and thus maybe a quarter of the lifetime. I haven't 
seen any recent data but you can roughly expect a high-performance tube 
to last 7 to 10 years if used full-time and if there are no other 
defects. A standard tube might last 20 to 25 years if used full-time and 
there are no other defects.

So it's not as bad as you think. And I would never use the word 
"disappointing". Come on, decades of physics research, not to mention a 
few Nobel prizes, turned a room-sized atomic physics laboratory into a 
compact 19" unit that fits on your desk. And its portable.

The more you study the history of timekeeping and the more you learn 
about how cesium standards work the more you will be absolutely amazed 
at what it is that you own. Treat it with great awe and respect. Like 
others have said, you don't have to run it 24x7 and if its working well 
today, it could easily outlast you. Now that's the disappointing part...

/tvb


On 6/29/2019 7:46 AM, Taka Kamiya via time-nuts wrote:
> I paid very little to purchase, so it's not a big deal from financial stand point, but it's disappointing that once it's done, it's done.
> By recommendation, I am keeping it mostly off and turn it on few days earlier of anticipated use, mostly to calibrate/verify something else.  My usual reference is GPSDO and Rubidium which are redundant and always on.
>
> ---------------------------------------
> (Mr.) Taka Kamiya
> I'm stuck in a wormhole....  Hello, worms!
>
>      On Friday, June 28, 2019, 5:00:25 PM EDT, Taka Kamiya via time-nuts <time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
>  
>  I have a Datum FTS 4040A.  I believe the tube is original but it is still locking and staying in lock just fine.  I don't know for how long.  In an event where tube goes soft/dead, replacing it with factory new replacement part is out of question for cost.  Are there any refurbished tubes available from anyone?
>
> ---------------------------------------
> (Mr.) Taka Kamiya
> I'm stuck in a wormhole....  Hello, worms!
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