Re: [time-nuts] R&S XSRM Rubidium Standard

[Clint Jay]

Experience has shown me that you can reasonably purchase good, working test
equipment that's well within calibration tolerances if you are buying the
more 'common' equipment, 6.5 digit meters, frequency counters, even a
Stanford SR620...

I've been very lucky with those, two spectrum analysers and various other
bits of test gear I'd never have been able to afford any other way, saving
thousands over what even tatty examples from equipment brokers would have
cost.

Yes, you can get bitten and buy a complete POS but you can also take
sensible precautions and get bargains.

On 14 Sep 2017 18:01, "Scott McGrath"  wrote:

> Its an unrealistic expectation that equipment from the well known auction
> site will work and be 'in-cal'
>
> Its realistic to anticipate several the purchase cost to get well priced
> instruments back 'in-cal'. But hey if i spend 2 k on a sweeper 3 k to fix
> and cal it and BlahTest is charging 10k for a ready to go unit im Still 5 k
> ahead of the game
>
> Content by Scott
> Typos by Siri
>
> > On Sep 12, 2017, at 12:10 PM, Dan Rae  wrote:
> >
> >> On 9/12/2017 5:58 AM, GandalfG8--- via time-nuts wrote:
> >> A friend of mine has bought a just out of calibration R  & S XSRM
> Rubidium
> >> standard from one of the so called "recyclers" on  Ebay.
> > Nigel / David,
> >
> > Sorry to hear of your "bargain".   However I doubt very much that the
> lamp was made by R&S themselves, like with the Racal 9475 unit it was
> probably sourced either as a module or as parts from someone like Efratom
> and one of those lamps will be found to fit. I'm not in a position to help
> much at present (just coming out of Chemo).  My Racal which was in a
> similar or worse state when I got that, now comes to life when needed.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Dan
> > ___
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> mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
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Re: [time-nuts] R&S XSRM Rubidium Standard

[Scott McGrath]

Precisely my point,   But when purchasing i expect to pay for a calibration at 
a minimum.  

 Helps to make friends with the local cal lab though as frequently far better 
pricing can be negotiated if you can get your instruments done on a  
non-critical basis as most of the business of a lab is time sensitive but like 
any other business they have slow periods.   

So your turnaround might be 3-4 weeks instead of 72 hours but the price is half 
of the 72 hour turn



> On Sep 15, 2017, at 4:07 AM, Clint Jay  wrote:
> 
> Experience has shown me that you can reasonably purchase good, working test
> equipment that's well within calibration tolerances if you are buying the
> more 'common' equipment, 6.5 digit meters, frequency counters, even a
> Stanford SR620...
> 
> I've been very lucky with those, two spectrum analysers and various other
> bits of test gear I'd never have been able to afford any other way, saving
> thousands over what even tatty examples from equipment brokers would have
> cost.
> 
> Yes, you can get bitten and buy a complete POS but you can also take
> sensible precautions and get bargains.
> 
>> On 14 Sep 2017 18:01, "Scott McGrath"  wrote:
>> 
>> Its an unrealistic expectation that equipment from the well known auction
>> site will work and be 'in-cal'
>> 
>> Its realistic to anticipate several the purchase cost to get well priced
>> instruments back 'in-cal'. But hey if i spend 2 k on a sweeper 3 k to fix
>> and cal it and BlahTest is charging 10k for a ready to go unit im Still 5 k
>> ahead of the game
>> 
>> Content by Scott
>> Typos by Siri
>> 
 On Sep 12, 2017, at 12:10 PM, Dan Rae  wrote:
 
 On 9/12/2017 5:58 AM, GandalfG8--- via time-nuts wrote:
 A friend of mine has bought a just out of calibration R  & S XSRM
>> Rubidium
 standard from one of the so called "recyclers" on  Ebay.
>>> Nigel / David,
>>> 
>>> Sorry to hear of your "bargain".   However I doubt very much that the
>> lamp was made by R&S themselves, like with the Racal 9475 unit it was
>> probably sourced either as a module or as parts from someone like Efratom
>> and one of those lamps will be found to fit. I'm not in a position to help
>> much at present (just coming out of Chemo).  My Racal which was in a
>> similar or worse state when I got that, now comes to life when needed.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> Dan
>>> ___
>>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
>>> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/
>> mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>>> and follow the instructions there.
>> ___
>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
>> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/
>> mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>> and follow the instructions there.
>> 
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Re: [time-nuts] Z3801A and Z38XX Issues

[Richard Solomon]

Not according to the manual, but then that could be my problem !!


73, Dick, W1KSZ


Sent from Outlook

From: time-nuts  on behalf of Bill Hawkins 

Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2017 8:16:17 PM
To: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement'
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Z3801A and Z38XX Issues

Shouldn't that be 8 data bits?

Bill Hawkins

-Original Message-
From: time-nuts [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of Richard
Solomon
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2017 4:24 PM

I downloaded and installed Z38XX, configured both the Port and Device to
the recommended parameters:


Data Rate:  19,200

Parity:  Odd

Data Bits:  7



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Re: [time-nuts] R&S XSRM Rubidium Standard

[Michael Prescott MSc]

I second Clint’s statement, most of the test equipment I’ve brought have worked 
on switch on. I did buy a R&S CRTU with no LCD display and paid £400 for 
something which didn’t work I had a lot of deep thoughts. It turns out  CRTU 
was only nine years old and two months out of calibration, the issue was an LCD 
back light anyway it still used using a separate display -hence the price.

I often look at the equipment brokers pieces than decide to return to the 
‘auction site and take the risk, I’ve only had a couple of issues and I always 
had my money returned

73’s

Mike G4WYZ

> Experience has shown me that you can reasonably purchase good, working test
> equipment that's well within calibration tolerances if you are buying the
> more 'common' equipment, 6.5 digit meters, frequency counters, even a
> Stanford SR620...
> 
> I've been very lucky with those, two spectrum analysers and various other
> bits of test gear I'd never have been able to afford any other way, saving
> thousands over what even tatty examples from equipment brokers would have
> cost.
> 
> Yes, you can get bitten and buy a complete POS but you can also take
> sensible precautions and get bargains.
> 
> On 14 Sep 2017 18:01, "Scott McGrath"  wrote:
> 
>> Its an unrealistic expectation that equipment from the well known auction
>> site will work and be 'in-cal'
>> 
>> Its realistic to anticipate several the purchase cost to get well priced
>> instruments back 'in-cal'. But hey if i spend 2 k on a sweeper 3 k to fix
>> and cal it and BlahTest is charging 10k for a ready to go unit im Still 5 k
>> ahead of the game
>> 
>> Content by Scott
>> Typos by Siri
>> 
>>> On Sep 12, 2017, at 12:10 PM, Dan Rae  wrote:
>>> 
 On 9/12/2017 5:58 AM, GandalfG8--- via time-nuts wrote:
 A friend of mine has bought a just out of calibration R  & S XSRM
>> Rubidium
 standard from one of the so called "recyclers" on  Ebay.
>>> Nigel / David,
>>> 
>>> Sorry to hear of your "bargain".   However I doubt very much that the
>> lamp was made by R&S themselves, like with the Racal 9475 unit it was
>> probably sourced either as a module or as parts from someone like Efratom
>> and one of those lamps will be found to fit. I'm not in a position to help
>> much at present (just coming out of Chemo).  My Racal which was in a
>> similar or worse state when I got that, now comes to life when needed.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> Dan
>>> ___
>>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
>>> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/
>> mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>>> and follow the instructions there.
>> ___
>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com
>> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/
>> mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>> and follow the instructions there.
>> 
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