[time-nuts] Service manual for HP 106B Quartz Oscillator

[Tom Van Baak]

Hi Jim,

I'm glad you've made progress on it. The big old 106B is the
best quartz frequency standard hp ever made. I measured
more than one of them with short-term stability down around
1e-13. Left on for months, drift rate are on par with rubidium.

Some long-term plots of a hp 106b are shown here:
http://www.leapsecond.com/museum/hp106b/
but I see that old page doesn't include any recent short-term
performance plots.

/tvb

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Palfreyman" <jim77742 at gmail.com>
To: "Stan Searing" <stans at sycard.com>; "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" <time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 4:22 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Service manual for HP 106B Quartz Oscillator


> Hi Stan, (and time-nuts because this may interest someone).
> 
> Well I've made good progress. The 1000 uF capacitor fixed a lot of things.
> After letting the unit warm up for 24 hours it has settled down to become
> quite an accurate unit. Current drift (after calibration with a screwdriver)
> is 2 nsec a minute. Not bad for an old beast.
> 
> I notice the oven has four adjustments. Two marked "factory settings". The
> large screw at front and centre is a course oscillator adjustment - but I
> don't know the other three. Can you look those up for me. There locations
> are:
> 
> Rear centre - screw is deep within the unit. No noticeable change. I'm
> guessing inner oven temperature.
> Rear offset - screw is near the surface. No noticeable change. I'm guessing
> outer oven temperature.Seems to adjust the amplitude of the waveform in some
> weird way. Not sure of this.
> 
> There is also a large internal trim pot near the front top of the unit but
> facing backwards. I'd like to know what this does.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jim
> 
> 
> 2009/7/30 Jim Palfreyman <jim77742 at gmail.com>
> 
>> Hi Stan,
>>
>> No I've had no luck at all!
>>
>> How big are the 106B manuals (in pages)?
>>
>> Is it feasible to get them scanned? I know I could do it - but Australia is
>> a long way...
>>
>> I know Didier Judges has an excellent archive of manuals (
>> http://www.ko4bb.com/manuals.php) and this is not in it. Which is a pity,
>> because I understand this was a premier unit for its day. I have one and I'm
>> repairing it. The first dud component I've found is a 1000 uF capacitor in
>> the power supply. But there may be more.
>>
>> My first immediate query is what signals/waveform should be on the three
>> test points at the upper rear of the unit?
>>
>> Thanks and regards,
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> 2009/7/30 Stan Searing <stans at sycard.com>
>>
>>
>>> Hi Jim,
>>>  Did you find the manual?
>>> I have a op and service manual for the 106A and 106B.
>>> TVB may have already scanned one.
>>> I do want to keep my manual, but could scan sections sometime.
>>>
>>>
>>> Stan
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
>>> Behalf Of Jim Palfreyman
>>> Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 7:48 PM
>>> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
>>> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Service manual for HP 106B Quartz Oscillator
>>>
>>> 106B.
>>>
>>> 2009/7/29 J. L. Trantham <jltran at worldnet.att.net>
>>>
>>> > 106B or 105B?
>>> >
>>> > Joe
>>> >
>>> > -----Original Message-----
>>> > From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com]
>>> > On Behalf Of Jim Palfreyman
>>> > Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 8:56 PM
>>> > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
>>> > Subject: [time-nuts] Service manual for HP 106B Quartz Oscillator
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Does anyone know where I might get hold of one of these manuals? (I've
>>> > looked in the usual places) I have one of these devices and it needs a
>>> > bit of work.
>>> >
>>> > Regards,
>>> >
>>> > Jim