[time-nuts] Favorite counters (current production)?

[Christopher Hoover]

>
> When I saw how badly they handled the external REF-in


I (my company) have one of these.  Can you say more?

re: SRS, I ran into the CEO -- I have forgotten his name and misplaced his
card -- at a local office supply store in Mountain View near the end of
2016.  I was behind him in a long'ish xmas line.    He was buying some
end-of-the-year payroll forms.  He was with his wife, and he or she said
something that made me realize that he was with SRS.   So I introduced
myself first as an engineer at a local tech company that knew of his
company and then as a time-nut (never lead with the time-nut thing :-)).  I
explained that I had a couple of SRS rubidium standards, and  that there
were a bunch of folks in our pro-to-hobby community who really liked the
SR620.  (Would you please offer me a xmas discount on an SR620, please, I
did not ask.)   Really nice guy.   SRS is a small company -- we chatted
about some of the challenges they faced.   I related that I could remember
doing payroll paperwork by hand once upon a time.

-- Christopher.
73 de AI6KG



On Sat, Nov 11, 2017 at 2:42 AM, Tom Van Baak <tvb at leapsecond.com> wrote:

> > Rank your preferences!
>
> I echo Magnus. In almost every photo of national timing labs you will see
> SR620's in use. The interface, specs, readability, and reliability are
> really good. Also SRS seems to support their products forever. For the
> curious, the full BOM and schematics are in the service manual. Note they
> just added the FS740 (GPSDO) but there's no update for the 620 after all
> these years. The downside is that they are larger, heavier, and louder than
> many modern instruments.
>
> For high-performance and high-throughput the CNT-91 is my choice. Quiet,
> feather-light, and it's a continuous dual-edge timestamping counter with
> raw data output capability.
>
> That said, when I need a quick or long-term measurement I almost always
> grab a HP 53132A and run it in talk-only mode, collecting data with
> RS232->USB. Once you get used to the 5 key (arrows & enter) UI you're all
> set.
>
> About the 53230 -- When it came out I got a pair on loan from Agilent; one
> with and one without OCXO. When I saw how badly they handled the external
> REF-in and how noisy the REF-out was, I figured it was a green team that
> designed it and I'd give them another product life cycle to learn about
> precision timing. So there are no 53230A in my lab. As soon as they come
> out with a redesigned B version where the ext/int REF are good to 1 ps
> (like you'd expect with a 12 digit/s counter), I will be the first to buy
> one.
>
> /tvb
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Magnus Danielson" <magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org>
> To: <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Cc: <magnus at rubidium.se>
> Sent: Friday, November 10, 2017 11:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Favorite counters (current production)?
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I would say CNT-99/91 and SR-620.
>
> Bob has a point about 53230, since the others is older, but on the other
> hand, it is a bit of a gamble. There are many aspects that goes into the
> longlivety of a product, such as access to components, but also strategy
> of companies.
>
> The CNT-90/91 an 53230 both have graphical presentation, which is very
> beneficial. The SR-620 still have better performance even being older
> than everything else.
>
> Cheers,
> Magnus
>
> On 11/10/2017 05:37 PM, Bob Camp wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > There is no perfect answer. I’d go with the 53230 simply because it
> *might* be supported
> > the longest.
> >
> > Bob
> >
> >> On Nov 10, 2017, at 11:17 AM, Scott Newell <newell+timenuts at n5tnl.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> What current production freq counters do people like for general
> time-nuttery these days? There's a chance I can get a decent counter for
> work, so I'm looking for suggestions. Bonus points for fanless. Don't need
> anything past 200 MHz or so. Prefer ethernet over USB or GPIB.
> >>
> >> The SR620 looks to be pretty big and a little dated. The 53230A seems
> to have better specs and screen than the Tek/Fluke FCA3k series. Am I
> missing any?
> >>
> >> Rank your preferences!
> >>
> >> --
> >> newell  N5TNL
>
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