[time-nuts] Re: Frequency counter recommendation wanted

[Gregory Beat]

Four years ago (2019), I was in the same situation.
A gov’t surplus reseller (PA) on eBay listed an Agilent 53131A 225MHz Universal Counter. There were a large number of these models (surplus) being sold a few years ago.  Acquired at good (low) price, in very good cosmetic condition (NASA surplus).

I changed out the fan and a couple of power supply capacitors.
Purchased Option 010 High Stability Timebase Option from Gerry Sweeney (UK).
https://youtu.be/RPTQaRoiJyE

Use Trimble Thunderbolt (Red, 8-channel) as an external frequency reference.

In 2020, just before COVID shutdown logistics, I purchased the 8 MHz prescaler from Cojotech (Romania) for Channel 3 with a nice custom SMA connector.
Planned for eventual WiFi 6E coverage.
https://cojotech.com

Nice counter, that meets my needs.

greg
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Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2023 14:26:16 -0400
From: John Miller <john at millerjs.org>
Subject: [time-nuts] Frequency counter recommendation wanted
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
   <time-nuts at lists.febo.com>

Hey All,
I have started a new project and I need trustworthy (frequency counter) that I can rely on for good measurements. I'm looking for something "general purpose" that can also do time interval measurements as well as logging, be it to GPIB, serial, USB, whatever. The ability to operate off of an external timebase would be nice, too, since I do have a known-good rubidium oscillator.