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

[Tom Van Baak]

> Len Cutler had a cylindrical oven assembly from a 106 on
> display in his office.  I wonder if he knew just how good these
> were.  I think he got to exercise his perfectionist tendancies
> on this one, without any "supervision" from the usual suspects.
> 
> Rick Karlquist N6RK

Yes, I was able to share my results with him in person some
years ago. He was very pleased. The 106B is quite amazing.

But it had a rather short product life - I have been told it was
too expensive to make and by the late 60's and early 70's hp
had a line of inexpensive but good quartz (105B) along with
their rubidium (5065A) and cesium (5060A and 5061A) which
perhaps crowded out the too-good 106B.

Now that I have better gear in my lab I want to repeat that old
40 day run that I did in 1997. I worry now that the drift and
tempco visible in those plots were partly due to the M-100 Rb
reference and not the 106B.

Based only on what I've tested here, I'd say that a well-working
106 is several times better than a Sulzer or FTS 1000/1200.
Only a modern BVA has better performance. The trick is to
get them working well, after 40 years of dust.

/tvb