[time-nuts] 53131A or 5370B

Tom Van Baak tvb at LeapSecond.com
Fri Nov 9 21:35:36 UTC 2007


> I've heard this recommendation before, but I'll admit I'm not sure I
> understand it.  My 5370B has no problem reading frequencies out to 1E-10 at
> 1-second gate times.  10 digits/second, just like the 53131A.  Sure, the two
> LSDs (1E-11 and 1E-12 at 10 MHz) are effectively tied to a random-number
> function, but if it bothered me that much I'd put a piece of electrical tape
> over that part of the display.

John, I agree about 1E-10.

The 5370B (and SR 620) have much better single-shot resolution
than a 53131A (or 53132A) but the latter appear to use the clever
continuous counting technique (200k phase measurements/sec)
so for most frequency applications they both achieve a resolution
of 10 digits/second.

I find the 5370 harder to use for casual bench jobs; it's also a huge,
heavy, sometimes unreliable, noisy beast compared to the compact,
modern, and highly reliable 53131A/53132A. The 53131A inputs are
more flexible than the 5370B. Also the talk-only RS232 port (with
periodic statistics), make logging data from the 53131A very easy
over any PC serial port.

Jeff, either will do the job; how about you try one for a few months
and then switch to the other one and give us a first-hand report on
your findings, both technical and subjective?

/tvb





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