> > Interesting reading on the atomicron. But thats one big rack plus tube. > > Certainly a piece of history or a very good anchor for a battleship. > > The Atomicron is certainly a huge piece and sure it is rare. There is > few people that I would think of that would consider it. In the best of > worlds, it would end up in the hands of someone that would care enought > about it to bring it back into shape. Very few would have the capability > and love for it. It would be a neat thing thought. I wonder how one of > those would measure up to what we have now, in modern comparision (you > won't need to educate me on just how many development phases passed > since it). > > If he gets it sold, it most probably would end up as a collectors or > museums old artifact monstrum. Not a bad one. I doubt any restoration > work would be done.
I think a lot of the later development work on cesium-beam standards was aimed at reducing their physical size, cost, and maintenance requirements. Unlike miniaturized, mass-produced, hermetically sealed tubes, the Atomichron's tube was probably built in a way that permits disassembly and restoration by someone who's comfortable with vacuum systems. The tube itself is very long, so if it's late enough to incorporate a Ramsey cavity, then it probably has a narrow line width. SNR might be a different story. The rest is just standard post-WWII era microwave hardware, with a block diagram that doesn't look all that different from later models. I'll bet it wouldn't be that hard to get it working again. That'd be cool as hell. -- john, KE5FX _______________________________________________ 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.