[time-nuts] ebay warning

[Chris Albertson]

On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 9:27 AM, Bob Camp <lists at rtty.us> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I just got a couple of FE's in from the same guy. They all lock up ok, no
> idea about how they age. One interesting thing though:
>
> All the other FE's I have seen came attached to PC boards. The ones I just
> got were taken off the board before shipping. All other FE's I've seen came
> in pretty close to 10 MHz on the high end of the VCXO sweep. The latest
> batch came in *much* higher (like 50 to 70 Hz high). I'm wondering if they
> were taken off the PC board to adjust the VCXO so they would lock.

That makes sense.  If you have many FE5680s, yu test them and sell the
good ones first as you repair the failed units.

On another list people were asking if they should buy a
"reconditioned" product from Apple.   (Apple offers the same 1 year
warranty.)  The majority opinion is that the "reconditioned" units
have a better record because they were bench checked here is the USA
and have better quality assurance testing than the new units get in
China.

This may be true of the re-worked FE5680s too.   A reworked unit might
have been tested for 30 minutes or so while the others only got
powered up briefly.

We don't really know the level of testing but over all these seem to
be reputable sellers who are responsive to problems.      I do avoid
sellers who claim their stuff is "new" when it can't be new.  Either
their understanding of the English word "new" is poor or they are
misrepresenting the product.  Either way there are others who don't
misuse the word that I can buy from.


Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California