[time-nuts] RE: phase locking Rb to GPS

[Magnus Danielson]

From: "Robert Lutwak" <Lutwak at Alum.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] RE: phase locking Rb to GPS
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 16:43:34 -0400
Message-ID: <000701c5d812$708718c0$cc1b10ac at lutwakhome>

> Careful, there's no such thing as a free lunch.  Reducing the power to the 
> oscillator improves the long-term stability (drift) at the expense of 
> short-term stability.

Indeed, but you can also handle that by using two oscillators, one for long-
term stability and one for short-term and lock the short-term to the long-term
oscillator with a suitable PLL bandwidth. Comes at some additional cost, but
then you can optimize each end better rather than compromizing on one crystal
oscillator. That ain't a free lunch either. In the end, you should not stare at
the numbers, one must recall the intended application and make that work.

Cheers,
Magnus