[time-nuts] A small piece on HP's hydrogen maser in 1968

[Jim Lux]

On 2/25/14 1:40 PM, Tom Van Baak wrote:
>> So what's all this about a Thallium Beam Tube???
>
> For info about the pro/con of Thallium beam frequency standards, see:
>
> http://tf.boulder.nist.gov/general/pdf/9.pdf
> http://tf.boulder.nist.gov/general/pdf/211.pdf
> http://leapsecond.com/history/1965-Metrologia-v1-n3-Cesium.pdf
>
> Imagine 21310.833946 MHz instead of 9192.631770 MHz...
>

Excellent, connectors that cost $50 each instead of $5.

Test equipment that costs 5x as much.

I work a lot with 32/34 GHz (deep space Ka-band) at work, and I hate 
having to explain to people who haven't had to buy equipment since back 
when they worked with X band (7.15/8.45 GHz)  that there's a BIG jump in 
cost when you cross that 18GHz boundary line.