[time-nuts] optically excite a quartz crystal?

[Chuck Harris]

I'm puzzling over this statement.  The FT-243's I have seen have a spring
that squishes the quartz blank between the electrodes.  They aren't plated
onto the quartz, but they are still in intimate mechanical and electrical
contact.

-Chuck Harris

Bob Camp wrote:
> Hi
>
> The WWII era FT-243 is one example of a crystal that has the active portion of the
> electrodes separated from the resonator by an air gap. There are lots of similar
> holders from that era that do pretty much the same thing. Non-contacting
> electrodes are not very new.
>
> Bob