[time-nuts] Is there anything better than a crystal oscillator?

[Peter Vince]

Thank you to all those who replied, and especially Tom - I hadn't 
been aware that active masers were self-oscillating, and your links 
led to some excellent information.


>You need to qualify what you mean by 'better' - is it:
>
>- Improved short term stability
>- Lower phase noise
>- Lower ageing rate
>- Reduced influence of environmental effects (load, temperature,
>radiation, G, vibration, barometric pressure, humidity or what have you!
>
>Quartz alone or combined with some other technology will still take some
>beating in all these areas.
>
>73,
>Murray ZL1BPU

Thanks Murray.  I was initially thinking of the first two - I am 
presuming the relatively low Q of a crystal (cf atomic physics 
packages) will allow the phase to wobble about a bit, particular at 
the levels we are regularly discussing in this group.  Quartz has 
been used for a long time now, and I was wondering if there was 
anything that would give a "quantum" leap forward in performance.

	Thanks again to all for your input,

		Peter Vince