[time-nuts] Recommendations for a newbie?

Charles P. Steinmetz charles_steinmetz at lavabit.com
Sat Sep 8 17:32:45 UTC 2012


Said wrote (re: eBay 58503As):

>they work well for me, look brand-new, and came with power supply, rs-232
>cable, and antenna. I think it's a 5V antenna. The unit had about 37000 on
>the lifetime.
>
>The seller has close up photos, that's what the units look like. I plugged
>in the power, ran GPSCon to start an Auto-Survey, and they just worked.

Looking at the current and completed eBay listings for the 58503As 
from Hong Kong, I notice that the seller seems to have conversion 
units based on the Z3801 and on the Z3805, and some that may be 
factory 58503As.  The listing text for all of them says they have 
6-channel receivers.  Some have no PPS outputs, some have one, and 
some have two.  Some have internal AC power supplies, some have 
external supplies.  There appear to be at least two different 
rear-panel layouts.  They are priced from $260 to $999, and it does 
not seem obvious what justifies the radically different prices (aside 
from different antennas).  Based on these confusing listings, I'd be 
very reluctant to count on finding anything specific inside the 
housing (e.g, a particular OCXO) if I bought one, except possibly the 
$999 units that may be factory 58503As.

Best regards,

Charles










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