The Z3816A and Z3801A are plug and play with 4 LED status lights on the front panel including GPS Lock. I have the Thunderbolt and a Z3816A and find being able to review the information on the computer is very helpful including looking for satellite tracking loss, open or shorter antenna connections, etc. If you have an old laptop or other computer, it is simple to connect via a serial port and communicate via Tboltmon.exe or SatStat.exe.
You might look here (http://www.realhamradio.com/GPS_Frequency_Standard.htm) for more information. I have been playing with a 5061A and 5061B by looking at their outputs on a scope triggered by a Thunderbolt and I am amazed that I can generate a signal in my workshop that exactly matches the frequency of the Thunderbolt linked to the NIST reference. (Sorry for the 'simple' description, I have not yet made it to phase noise and stability comparisons). -----Original Message----- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of David C. Partridge Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 7:49 AM To: 'Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement' Subject: Re: [time-nuts] (no subject) Yes the Thunderbold truly is plug and play. In holdover of course the Rb will be more stable ... The RS-232 connection also lets you see if it has achieved GPS lock - you can't tell without something that talks to the RS-232 interface. Dave -----Original Message----- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of David Hilton-Jones Sent: 30 June 2009 13:28 To: time-nuts@febo.com Subject: [time-nuts] (no subject) I am not very much interested in how it is achieved, but wonder if a 10MHz oscillator locked to GPS is now available as "plug&play" rather than needing a lot of time/effort/building. I note the Thunderbolt units available from the Far East on ebay for~£80gbp. Are these really P&P - that is, just connect PSU and aerial and out comes 10MHz locked to GPS? Is it necessary to connect to a computer via the RS232 link, or is that just there if you want to fiddle and be clever? If so, then this may be preferrable to running my rubidium source continuously. What I am interested in is stability, not ultiamte accuracy. As always, sorry for the naivety of the question. Thanks David, G4YTL _______________________________________________ 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. _______________________________________________ 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.