[time-nuts] Interesting eBay-item?

John Day johnday at wordsnimages.com
Thu Feb 2 20:54:31 UTC 2006


At 01:48 PM 2/2/2006, you wrote:
> > Dear List,
> >
> > perhaps this item could be of interest to some fellow time-nut?:
> >
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/Mercury-Ion-Frequency-Standard ...
>
>See also the mail thread back in October. Same item.

Indeed it is! The seller said he did have the other rack back then, 
wonder why he is insistent on selling it in two halves. Even at this 
small starting price compared to his $5,800 back then I am not sure 
anyone can really make use of it!

John



> > To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
><time-nuts at febo.com>
> > Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 15:10
> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Mercury Ion Frequency Standard ?
> >
> > > Have you seen this?
> > > Mercury Ion Frequency Standard Set
> > > ebay # 7554448004
> > > Probably an HP prototype, looks not really recent... 1980s? anyone knows
> > more?
> > > Marco IK1ODO
> >
> > HP worked on Hg ion standards in the late 70's.
> > There was a paper about it published in 1981.
> > Performance claims were 1e-12 accuracy; 2e-13
> > reproducibility; and 1e-12 root tau stability; about
> > the same as a 1980's era cesium. This unit might
> > be one that HP delivered to USNO for evaluation.
> >
> > What you see for sale is just the electronics bay.
> > All the good stuff (the actual physics rack) is
> > missing and who knows where it is, possibly still
> > at USNO. Note the thick bundle of cut wires.
> >
> > So all you get is a miscellaneous collection of a
> > dozen HP and Varian instruments, which you
> > could buy separately (if you even wanted them)
> > for a fraction of the opening bid.
> >
> > /tvb
> > http://www.LeapSecond.com
>
>
>
>
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