[time-nuts] Maser 0.7 nsec jumps solved

Magnus Danielson magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org
Sun May 22 11:43:09 UTC 2016


Jim,

On 05/22/2016 03:58 AM, Jim Palfreyman wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Awhile back I posted about some mysterious 0.7 ns jumps in three different
> masers (of the same brand) at three different locations around Australia.
>
> Well we think we've found the problem. All three locations also have
> in-room air conditioners of the same brand. These are used for cooling
> only. When these units turn on, we think they induce a magnetic field from
> the inrush current that briefly disrupts the maser. We don't think it's
> electrical because moving to another phase did not change things.
>
> These air conditioners are all quite close to the masers. Typically a metre
> or 2 away.
>
> Much was done to discover this, but the clincher was that when the weather
> cooled enough at the southern most location (Hobart), we turned off the air
> con (only heating was needed) and the problem vanished.
>
> So there's a lesson here for all maser owners. The jump of 0.7 nsec is not
> much, but it's huge for VLBI and for time-nuts.

Good that you have found the offender, but have you been able to remedy 
it by other means than turning the AC off?
I think others H-maser owners would love to know, and potentially the 
vendor you have.

Cheers,
Magnus



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