[time-nuts] Re: Looking for OCXO info - MTI 250-0709-B

[Lux, Jim]

On 7/19/22 10:19 AM, Adrian Godwin via time-nuts wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 5:42 PM Bob kb8tq via time-nuts <
> time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
>
>> MTI is hardly unique in not sending out OEM data sheets. Most outfits
>> have similar rules. In some cases OEM’s go to pretty great lengths to
>> assure that nobody can get the specs on the parts they use. The main
>> idea is that it makes their end products harder to clone. Same thing that
>> got them dropping schematics from manuals ….
>>
>>
> A bizarre attitude. Surely someone going to the trouble of cloning an
> instrument is going to see reverse-engineering the schematic as a pretty
> minor job.


Not exactly - you might not be cloning, you might be developing a 
competitive instrument, and knowing the oscillator performance is useful 
(e.g. "I know I can get one like that" or you can check your design to 
see if using your oscillator, you can get the same performance).

Trade secrets are trade secrets - why give any secret sauce away...


A less common cause - the oscillator might be in a system that is 
subject to export controls, and the oscillator specifications are export 
controlled.  It's easier for the oscillator company to just say "nobody 
gets it other than the original customer", rather than having to make a 
decision on a case by case basis.


>
> Slightly more reasonable to keep things secret when one of the components
> is a quartz crystal with proprietary parameters and no public source.

Pretty much every commercial oscillator in existence is made with quartz 
crystals with proprietary parameters.  Sure, a box might have a 
commodity crystal in it, with published characteristics, but a packaged 
oscillator?  that is truly the oscillator mfr's secret sauce.