[time-nuts] Reflections and Low Phase Noise

Tom Knox actast at hotmail.com
Sat Sep 21 17:50:09 UTC 2013


If this at first appears to be off topic read on.
Having this year survived fire evacuations and most recently what has been called anything from a five to 1000 year flood here in Boulder, I have has a little time to reflect on just how lucky I was. Over the last few years I have made a few upgrades to harden my home against natural disasters. Adding sprinklers to the roof and a industrial sump pump in my basement. To say the least it paid off in a big way last week, since if my basement had flooded I would have lost my lab that I have spent several decades building. It has motivated me to finish upgrading my grounding and lightning protection with a new eye to detail. I write this post to encourage others to do the same by spending a few minutes to look for any vulnerabilities and spend a few days addressing them. Or at least upgrading insurance. For many here in Boulder lately there is nothing they could have done,  but for amny other a few minutes could have saved them months of work. If I can help just one Time-Nut save his lab it is worth it.
Now for the good stuff, We all have our idea of what a low or Ultra Low
        phase noise oscillator is. For 5 and 10MHz references I usually
        look first at 1Hz offset then the noise floor. At 5MHz I
        consider 125dB @ 1Hz state of the art. But now
        Arcihita Hati and colleges at NIST has designed a State-of-the-Art RF Signal Generation From Optical Frequency Division that sets a new standard for low phase noise with nearly -155dB @ 1Hz for a 5MHz reference. All I want to know is when will it be available as a
        single chip. And how long before Magnus, TVB, and other Senior
        Time-Nut have a workable prototype in their labs? The NIST link is not yet active, but if you would like a copy of the paper now email me off list I will send you the paper as an attachment. I think it may also be posted on IEEE's pay to play site.

Thomas Knox


 		 	   		  


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