[time-nuts] I've designed a GPSDO, but how "good" is it?

[Ian Stirling]

On 08/16/2015 08:39 PM, Bob Camp wrote:

> The “wear out” on a Rb is not the same as wear out on a 
> Cesium standard. In a Cs, you have a finite number if atoms
> loaded in at the factory. When those atoms all travel down the 
> tube, it’s dead. In an Rb, the atoms don’t go anywhere. There is
> no built in “end of life”. They mostly die from MTBF sorts of things 
> due to complexity and high temperatures, There are HP Rb’s 
> built many decades ago still running on their original cells.

  Bob, that is fascinating information.
I will use my surplus Rubidium units more often now.

Ian, G4ICV, AB2GR
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