On 10 January 2017 at 15:35, Ole Petter Rønningen <opronnin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ... having said that, I for one think I'm with Bob on this one. The thing > about masers are that they are big. At least active masers. And they > require a substantial volume be kept at ultra high vacuum - which is not > trivial, especially not in a homeshop. The cavity needs to be kept at a > temperature stable to 0.001 degree C. With 4-5 magnetic shields. Add to > this costly pumps to keep the vacuum this low even if you succeed at > reaching that vacuum.. There's easily 1-2KUSD running cost per year just to > keep the maser running. > Looking at the Microsemi MHM 2010 Active Hydogen Maser data sheet, the maser has a peak power of 150 W and an operating power of 75 W. Based on a power consumption of 75 W, that is 657 kW hr / year of energy. I pay around £0.20 (GBP) per kW hr for electricity, so that's £131 (GBP) annually. I believe electricity is cheaper in the USA than here in the UK, but converting £131 (GBP) to USD, that's around $161/year in electricity. So running costs don't seem to be an issue. But I must admit, the thought of spending a lot of time/money to build something I could have bought for a lot less with higher performance is not that attractive, although of course there would be a satisfaction from building it yourself. Dave _______________________________________________ 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.