[time-nuts] 10MHz Rubidium reference source for frequency counter

Charles Steinmetz csteinmetz at yandex.com
Mon Oct 27 20:04:19 UTC 2014


Karen wrote:

> > Really I am looking for a source with a good short range 
> stability performance between 1 and 10 seconds.

I concur with everything Tom wrote.  If that is your goal, the best 
you are likely to do is with a good, free-running (non-disciplined) 
OCXO.  That will have the best stability you can get (short of a 
hydrogen maser) from 0.1 seconds to ~100 seconds.

For the convenience of having automatic drift correction, many of us 
use GPSDOs and turn off the disciplining before making measurements.

I might consider a PRS10 as an alternative, but certainly no other 
"compact" Rb, disciplined or otherwise.  Even the rack-mount HP 5065 
can't beat a good free-running OCXO.  Many of the "compact" Rb units 
(and especially the FE5680) have nasty output waveforms with many spurs.

Best regards,

Charles






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