[time-nuts] EFRATOM MFTD-AC4 FREQUENCY REFERENCE DISTRIBUTION AMP - update

[Demian Martin]

I received the unit. The shipping and packing was very good- no peanuts!

The one I got was different from what I expected. It's a 5 MHz unit with 20
outputs. More than I could conceivably need. I looked inside. The supply is
actually 25V. The input module has an FPGA for some reason, probably to
communicate fault back to a host. The signal is distributed as a low level
square wave on the backplane and amplified through a high gain tuned amp
before going to the output amps. The outputs are all monitored.

I need to figure out the tuned circuit so I can retune it. Would the
performance be better if I bypass the input module and drive the output
modules with a sine wave? I'm using it as a reference for some
not-too-sophisticated counters and generators so the phase noise will be
much better than those could benefit from regardless.

Demian Martin
PDS
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> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:46:44 -0700
> From: "Demian Martin" <demianm_1 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [time-nuts] EFRATOM MFTD-AC4 FREQUENCY REFERENCE DISTRIBUTION
> 	AMP
> To: <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Message-ID: <9A1668B965254471953484D102B6A96C at PDSDesktop>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
> 
> 
> EFRATOM MFTD-AC4 FREQUENCY REFERENCE DISTRIBUTION AMP
> I just bought this off eBay. I was about to look into 
> building one but for
> $50 + $25 shipping I could not justify the effort. They have 
> 6 more. Item
> number 290330439821.  Probably a deal for the box alone. 
> 
> Is there anything I should know about it? I'm planning to mount a
> Thunderbolt inside it. There is a decent datasheet on the 
> family of products
> here: http://www.freewebs.com/beststuff2u/MFS-207.pdf 
> 
> Demian Martin