I looked into the Jackson Labs products. Prices range from nearly $400
to almost $1300 for a dual-oven unit.
Seemed reasonable, but higher than I'm willing to go at the moment.
Maybe down the road....
Had a Z3801 which worked for 10 years, then failed - experimenter who
bought it found the XO some 40 Hz off -- not correctible without
invasive repair. I think he gave up and kept it for parts.
I bought one ot the TB clones off the e-place, and am not yet sure
whether it is good or not. It spends more time in RECOVERY mode than
PHASE LOCKED, and the VCO voltage takes large jumps every time the
number of satellites changes. Still scratching my head.
Good luck!
Jim
wb4...@amsat.org
On 10/12/2013 9:16 AM, Mark C. Stephens wrote:
As per Bob Camps Wisdom below, most of the thunderbolts and Z38XX have been
well picked over, the remaining ones are usually poor in some way.
The main problem seems to be unstable oscillators, invasive repair is required
to meet specifications.
--marki
-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf
Of Bob Camp
Sent: Saturday, 12 October 2013 10:52 PM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Trimble TB replacement options???
Hi
All of these gizmos come on the market cheap when they are being scrapped out.
Once that process is over for a generation of parts, the pieces climb. There
are only a few working strategies:
1) Buy several when they first come out.
2) Pay the going rate many years later.
3) Switch to other gizmos with other cost / feature tradeoffs.
In this case the likely tradeoff is to one of the Nortel / Trimble units or to
one of the later HP boxes. The Nortel / Trimbles are in the sub $150 price
range delivered. The later HP's are a bit more expensive. The Nortel /
Trimble's come mainly from RDR Electronics on the e-place. The HP's come from
the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
One other option - before I'd pay $300 for a possibly broken TBolt (I've got a
few of those), I'd do an email to find out what a brand new GPSDO (with
warranty) from Jackson Labs would cost me.
Bob
On Oct 11, 2013, at 8:51 PM, Paul <tic-...@bodosom.net> wrote:
On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 7:24 PM, Frank Hughes <hp_cisco...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Does it seem like the Trimble Thunderbolt units are becoming scarce, and
commanding prices accordingly?
The "inexpensive" used Thunderbolts predate my interest in GPSDOs so I
can't speak to relative prices but if your budget is ~ $300 they're
still readily available. The various 2PPS Trimble GPSTM boxes/boards
seem to occupy the < $200 Thunderbot-like niche and some work
(somewhat) with Lady Heather if you're fond of that program.
Various Z38xx devices are also candidates if you just want an
inexpensive GPSDO in-a-box with 1 and 10M Hz (some with multiple
outputs) if you are willing to deal with it's-not-quite-a-Z3801
behavior.
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