> Rank your preferences! I echo Magnus. In almost every photo of national timing labs you will see SR620's in use. The interface, specs, readability, and reliability are really good. Also SRS seems to support their products forever. For the curious, the full BOM and schematics are in the service manual. Note they just added the FS740 (GPSDO) but there's no update for the 620 after all these years. The downside is that they are larger, heavier, and louder than many modern instruments.
For high-performance and high-throughput the CNT-91 is my choice. Quiet, feather-light, and it's a continuous dual-edge timestamping counter with raw data output capability. That said, when I need a quick or long-term measurement I almost always grab a HP 53132A and run it in talk-only mode, collecting data with RS232->USB. Once you get used to the 5 key (arrows & enter) UI you're all set. About the 53230 -- When it came out I got a pair on loan from Agilent; one with and one without OCXO. When I saw how badly they handled the external REF-in and how noisy the REF-out was, I figured it was a green team that designed it and I'd give them another product life cycle to learn about precision timing. So there are no 53230A in my lab. As soon as they come out with a redesigned B version where the ext/int REF are good to 1 ps (like you'd expect with a 12 digit/s counter), I will be the first to buy one. /tvb ----- Original Message ----- From: "Magnus Danielson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, November 10, 2017 11:50 AM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Favorite counters (current production)? Hi, I would say CNT-99/91 and SR-620. Bob has a point about 53230, since the others is older, but on the other hand, it is a bit of a gamble. There are many aspects that goes into the longlivety of a product, such as access to components, but also strategy of companies. The CNT-90/91 an 53230 both have graphical presentation, which is very beneficial. The SR-620 still have better performance even being older than everything else. Cheers, Magnus On 11/10/2017 05:37 PM, Bob Camp wrote: > Hi > > There is no perfect answer. I’d go with the 53230 simply because it *might* > be supported > the longest. > > Bob > >> On Nov 10, 2017, at 11:17 AM, Scott Newell <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> What current production freq counters do people like for general >> time-nuttery these days? There's a chance I can get a decent counter for >> work, so I'm looking for suggestions. Bonus points for fanless. Don't need >> anything past 200 MHz or so. Prefer ethernet over USB or GPIB. >> >> The SR620 looks to be pretty big and a little dated. The 53230A seems to >> have better specs and screen than the Tek/Fluke FCA3k series. Am I missing >> any? >> >> Rank your preferences! >> >> -- >> newell N5TNL _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
