Wow, thank you everyone for the wealth of information and advice. It sounds like for my needs, either the TBolt or HP Z-box will do just fine, and cost is going to be more of a driver than anything else. It seems that the HPs are more plentiful on a certain well-known auction site, but Thunderbolts are cheaper. I'll keep an eye out for good deals.
Again, big thanks to everyone for the information, and for the welcoming atmosphere! -Rob On Sat, Sep 8, 2012 at 10:32 AM, Charles P. Steinmetz < charles_steinm...@lavabit.com> wrote: > Said wrote (re: eBay 58503As): > > > they work well for me, look brand-new, and came with power supply, rs-232 >> cable, and antenna. I think it's a 5V antenna. The unit had about 37000 on >> the lifetime. >> >> The seller has close up photos, that's what the units look like. I plugged >> in the power, ran GPSCon to start an Auto-Survey, and they just worked. >> > > Looking at the current and completed eBay listings for the 58503As from > Hong Kong, I notice that the seller seems to have conversion units based on > the Z3801 and on the Z3805, and some that may be factory 58503As. The > listing text for all of them says they have 6-channel receivers. Some have > no PPS outputs, some have one, and some have two. Some have internal AC > power supplies, some have external supplies. There appear to be at least > two different rear-panel layouts. They are priced from $260 to $999, and > it does not seem obvious what justifies the radically different prices > (aside from different antennas). Based on these confusing listings, I'd be > very reluctant to count on finding anything specific inside the housing > (e.g, a particular OCXO) if I bought one, except possibly the $999 units > that may be factory 58503As. > > Best regards, > > Charles > > > > > > > > > ______________________________**_________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/** > mailman/listinfo/time-nuts<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.