[time-nuts] Thinking outside the box a super reference

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

On 11/4/2016 4:04 PM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

> Historically resonance cavities were used so that step/avalance
> diode multipliers had enough power to excite them.  Today we have
> semiconductors which work at those frequencies.
>

A great deal of complexity in the 5061 went into
exciting an SRD at 90 MHz and getting a sufficient
line at 9180 MHz to put on a sideband at 9192.
I spent a lot of time trying to do this during the
5071 project and was never able to get anywhere
near the efficiency that the 5061 waveguide structure
was able to do.  It was designed by a visiting Korean
professor, so he wasn't around to mentor me.
The 10816 also used an SRD, and it was also a
struggle, although I was able to make it work.

Fortunately, we were able to replace all this with a
DRO and PLL, and that was 25 years ago.  At this time,
it is even more of a no brainer that you don't want
to knock yourself out trying to make an SRD multiplier
work.  Also, these days, it is harder than ever to
purchase good SRD's.

Rick