[time-nuts] A Monday morning smile

[David Van Horn]

We brought up our second Thunderbolt last week.  We use these to provide a standard frequency for all our test gear, and in our calibration process for production boards.
One unit feeds engineering, and the other feeds production, with a spare unit on the shelf, so that if either the engineering or production TB goes down, we can switch to the other live unit in seconds, and then replace the dead one when convenient.   There’s a spare antenna on the side as well. Both units feed distribution amps, and we have a direct tap for each unit to a scope which shows both sine waves in real time.

I had the new one running the long site survey over the weekend, and I was extremely pleased to see both sine waves looking as if I was seeing both ends of a cable.
NO perceivable drift between them.  I’m sure there is a little, but I feel like I need a calendar rather than a stopwatch to measure it.

I know it’s what I should expect with these, but seeing two independent oscillators acting like this reminds me of my first experience playing a DVD.  When I pulled the disc out, NO REWINDING!
I felt compelled to trace the cables to be SURE I was seeing the right signals.

Technology is wonderful when it works.  😊

Anyway, just had to share that with folks who get it.