[time-nuts] Beginner's time reference

[Hal Murray]

> Thank you for your suggestions. I suppose I should have emphasised
> that I was looking to have my own reference, i.e. something not
> dependent on GPS, LORAN, or other signals from the aether. Indeed I
> might get better accuracy for less money by tapping the GPS time
> signal, but to me that's not as much fun as building my own atomic
> reference.

What do you mean by "building my own atomic reference"?

Do you want to build one from scratch?  Or buy something and make it do 
something?

Building one from scratch is going to be a lot of work.  It will take a good 
shop.  If that's what you want to do, I'd suggest buying a dead one 
(hopefully cheap) so you can take it apart and get an idea of what you are 
getting into.


> Hal, is there much difference in quality for these rubidium tubes?
> Will I get what I pay for? In any case, you make a good point about
> measuring the accuracy. I'm a university student, so perhaps I can pay
> the physics department a visit. Otherwise, maybe I could compare it to
> the GPS signal? 

Most of the low cost rubidiums are recycled telco gear.  I don't know how 
long they have been used.  If they last a few more years that's ballpark of 
$50 per year so budget for something like that.

If you want to know how good your setup is, GPS has almost cornered that 
market.  It's low cost and very very good over the long term.

The big boys use GPS to compare their clocks.  Search for >common view<.



-- 
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