[time-nuts] Characterization of Oscillator w/ HP5345a

[John Foege]

Hello all,

I am new to the world of time-nuts. I am therefore new to the world of
precision timing/oscillators and the likes. I am learning as I go. One
project that I am keenly interested in for use in my lab, is a 10MHz
GPSDO. Obviously this will be useful to me as a starting project as I
delve into this hobby. It shall also serve useful as reference for my
freq. counters or any other equipment that needs an accurate timebase.
I imagine it will also provide a good reference signal for use in
various HAM radio related projects.

I recently acquired an HP5345a counter with the 4ghz plugin and it
appears to also have Opts. 11 and 12. It appears to have 3 GPIB
connectors on the rear panel. I was wondering what kinds of cool
things I can do with it; specifically could I characterize a GPSDO
that I am building? Is there software that exists, perhaps John Miles'
freeware GPIB programs that work with a Prologix interface, etc?

My concern is that I dont have a cesium reference to feed into the
counter. Therefore I do not have a source that is at least an order of
magnitude more stable. So what, if anything could I do?

Any ideas? Any suggestions for this project? I intend to build
something quite similar to:

http://www.jrmiller.demon.co.uk/projects/ministd/frqstd0.htm

I have 2 Jupiter GPS units in my possesion already and the next step
is to acquire a good OCXO somewhere (eBay from China most likely).

I thank everyone in advance for any suggestions.

Sincerely,

John Foege
KB1FSX