[time-nuts] Hydrogen maser success - epilog

[Magnus Danielson]

Hi,

On 2020-01-17 22:09, Skip Withrow wrote:
> Hello Time-Nuts,
>
> I appreciate all the kind remarks regarding yesterday's post.
>
> Today the maser was tested on each of the attached power supplies and
> on battery power.  Unit stayed lit and locked, and the alarm went off
> when on just battery.  So, all the covers were replaced and the
> readings logged.  We'll see where things stand in a week or so after
> it has had time to settle and reach its new thermal equilibrium.
Good progress.
> Sigma Tau Standards Corporation was the fist and only commercial
> manufacturer of hydrogen masers in the U.S., in fact, I believe there
> are only three companies world-wide (the other two being in Russia -
> Kvarz and ?).

T4Science, which is where the team from Observatoir Cantonell de
Neuchatel (ON) ended up, for a while also through Oscilloquartz.

The Kvarz masers have been repackaged by severals, such as
Oscilloquartz. I only have a rubidium from the pre-cursor to Kvarz. I
aim to bring that back into operations again.

>   Harry Peters retired from NASA in 1975 after building
> several units there, and moved to Alabama to found Sigma Tau.  Over
> the years Sigma Tau was bought by Symmetricom (when Harry Peters
> retired again), Symmetricom was purchased by MciroSemi, and MicroSemi
> was purchased by Microchip.  The division is still active and
> producing product in Alabama.
Sigma Tau went up into DATUM and then Symmetricom bought DATUM as I
recall it.
>
> There is at least one of the old guard left from Sigma Tau, Bryan
> Owings.  He was consulted on several occasions when  the maser was
> trying to be coaxed into operation.  It was VERY clear that he has
> seen many of these units and knows the intimate details of their
> construction.  Have to say that I learned a few things from him as
> well.
Masers is quite a different beasts from your normal beam clock, in
several ways. You become much more aware about things, and to some
degree they are more open. You learn a lot with these things.
> If you need some light reading on hydrogen masers you might try the
> following link -
> https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740008078.pdf
> It is from 1973 by Harry Peters and keeps it pretty basic.  I don't
> think there was ever a commercial version of a variable volume unit,
> but it makes a good research tool.
>
> I hope to post again some months out when we have some data.

Look forward to hear more!

Cheers,
Magnus