[time-nuts] old freq standards
Marco Bruno
IK1ODO at spin-it.com
Sat Oct 15 11:53:11 UTC 2005
At 12.59 15/10/2005, you wrote:
>Symmetricom purchased (exactly) two products from Agilent: the
>5071A cesium beam frequency standard and the 5087B distribution
>amplifier. They have not announced discontinuation or
>discontinuation of support of either of them.
>
>As to the larger question of providing support for obsolete
>products, keep in mind that obsoletion of components is the
>principal reason that products go obsolete. These days, in the
>commercial electronics industry, typical product cycle lifetimes are
>1-2 years. The component manufacturers cater to these high-volume
>applications, not to the low-volume long-life frequency standard
>industry. Hobbyists may be able to keep things going for a few
>years by scavenging components but probably not with the same level
>of performance and reliability one expects from manufacturer service.
>
>Try getting a 5-year-old DVD player repaired before you start
>demanding support on a 35-year-old mercury ioin standard that never
>made it into production.
>
>Note that I do not speak for Symmetricom management, nor am I privy
>to any future plans for product obsolesence.
>
>As TVB points out, that rack of Mg+ electronics was probably for a
>prototype. Eventually, about a half-dozen pre-production units were
>built at HP, about the size of a 5061. Most of them ended up at
>USNO. If one of those ever shows up on Ebay, it might be worth the
>trouble to try and get it working, but only if it comes with manuals
>and schematics. The biggest issue will be the vacuum integrity of
>the physics package. If it's lost vacuum or the ion pump won't
>fire, you're probably dead in the water.
>
>
>-RL
Thanks Robert and TVB for the info on the Hg+ standard. I was not
planning anything about it... just looking at the strange beast. And
I was not aware of the HP research on this type of standard.
About obsolescence, I agree totally. My job is buying, repairing and
selling second hand test equipment; the search for obsolete
components is an every-day matter. Every day worse, of course.
Marco IK1ODO
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