[time-nuts] H-Maser, but not on ebait...

[Scott Lacy]

Hi Tom and fellow Timenuts,

> From: "Tom Van Baak" <tvb at LeapSecond.com>

> Scott,
> 
> No problem posting this on the list. I wish vintage masers would
> show up more often. Too bad it's not practical to bring it up
> here where I could measure it against mine.
> 

While I'd certainly like to avoid moving it more than absolutely required, it may come to that.


> I see it comes with manuals; does it also include the physicist?
> (I've heard that, in the early days at least, that each maser
> required one full-time physicist to keep it running ;-)
> 

I do think there's a part number there somewhere for 'staff physicist' but the one that shipped with it is worn out...
Seriously, as far as I know, this maser has never had physics problems, just the normal electronics issues you'd expect over 25 
years of continuous operation.

> Do you have any comparative NRAO performance data on this
> unit? Perhaps not, if it was used stand-alone. But maybe data
> was collected against other NRAO masers from time to time over
> the years. Any chance you or someone else could get a copy
> of those test runs?

I'm certain that it has been compared to many Sigma Tau masers, but if any hard data was taken (beyond the 'Yep, they match.' 
stage) it has long since been buried beyond finding. Sorry.


Cheers,
Scott