10 MHz Everywhere!

[xrunner]

TheSteve started this ...

10 MHz everywhere!

It does seem to be everywhere TheSteve, it's at my house too. In fact it's all over the place here.

Is it at anyone else's house?

[slurry]

It's in my house too, strange... hmmm... 

I run a FE-xxxx Rubidium and usually a re-purposed video distribution amplifier but now a BG7TBL distribution amplifier is used, i'm not really a time-nut so i keep it simple...for now 

[TheSteve]

TheSteve started this ...

10 MHz everywhere!

It does seem to be everywhere TheSteve, it's at my house too. In fact it's all over the place here.

Is it at anyone else's house?

Clearly my distribution amplifier is working extremely well.

[JPortici]

I don't trust that 10.000000 (muhuahahaha)

[xrunner]

I don't trust that 10.000000 (muhuahahaha)

Oh man, now I can't believe you don't trust that. 

How can I convince you? 

[Brumby]

That is an elegant piece of gear.

[awallin]

That is an elegant piece of gear.

Don't turn it on - take it apart 

[Brumby]

If you must .... but DON'T scratch the case!

[DimitriP]

I don't trust that 10.000000 (muhuahahaha)

Oh man, now I can't believe you don't trust that. 

How can I convince you? 

Add more 000

[TiN]

Meh, time-nuts... I don't even monitor my Rb... 

[xrunner]

Add more 000

Hehehe - How many? I'll never be able to add enough to satisfy you - I know how this game goes. 

[tszaboo]

So, that means, if you connect the 10 MHz on the front, and on the back of a timer counter, than it will be 10 MHz on the screen? 

[PA0PBZ]

So, that means, if you connect the 10 MHz on the front, and on the back of a timer counter, than it will be 10 MHz on the screen? 

Let me tell you a little secret: It doesn't even have to be 10 MHz 

[TheSteve]

That is an elegant piece of gear.

Don't turn it on - take it apart 

Already done! I had to see the inside.

[bingo600]

That's not an "Everywhere Box"   

This is an "Everywhere Box"       - 8 x 5 (40) outputs  - I got mine from KJDS
.


https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/fun-with-a-racal-9480-with-ocxo-40-10mhz-outputs-(8x-5-chan)/msg653659/#msg653659

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Racal-9480-10-04B-Time-and-frequency-mainframe-/401010554495

Congrats Steve - I bet it has nice specs.

/Bingo

[TheSteve]

It does look pretty - but does yours accept two inputs and auto fail over to the backup input, while also accepting alarm inputs and generating alarm outputs? 

[bingo600]

It actually have a built-in ocxo (or RB) , that it switches to.
If the primary input fails (is undetected)

And it has alarms etc too ...   , yours seems like it's a "next gen" dist-amp though.

I got it because i ran out of chans. on my old distamp , now i have enough

/Bingo

[TheSteve]

Mine is still from the HP era of course. I did some basic testing and its performance seems better then anything I own can measure.
It can have an OCXO fitted internally and will fail to it. I will see if I can get some good pics later. It does seem rather entertaining that a 10 MHz distribution amp would have firmware, a processor, ram, and it communicate via SCPI. I admit I have lusted after one for quite some time, I've made several lowball best offers on them over the last year or two. One was finally accepted.

[Red Squirrel]

Need one of these too now:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Symmetricom-OT-21-Officetime-Multiplexer-25413150-411-0-/272452367547?hash=item3f6f6d34bb:g:QAwAAOSwcLxYLOIz

And GPS antenna.
 
That's a different kind of "clock" though.    Those GPS antennas also double as lightning rod, my coworker who was in our building when it got hit knows all about that.   

I don't know too much about this stuff, just that it's used to sync up communication stuff, but I think they also have an NTP server built in.  Why use time.gov as a time source when you can be your own time source!

[TheSteve]

The 58502A got its own shelf.

Seems to be bang on.... 

[tszaboo]

So, that means, if you connect the 10 MHz on the front, and on the back of a timer counter, than it will be 10 MHz on the screen? 

Let me tell you a little secret: It doesn't even have to be 10 MHz 

I dont understand time nuts. They can create voltage references, or very accurate currents, but they waste their time on time...


 

[Berni]

I dont understand time nuts. They can create voltage references, or very accurate currents, but they waste their time on time...


 

Well at least its a slightly easier hobby than being a volt nut. You can use GPS clocks to verify long term drift of your oscillators. No such thing for checking if your HP 3458A is drifting.

[Harb]

I just use a big VDA....I think it has 100 or so outputs.....10 on each euro card.

[edpalmer42]

I just use a big VDA....I think it has 100 or so outputs.....10 on each euro card.

One 'trap for young players' when you convert a 75 ohm Video Distribution Amp to 50 ohms is total load.  I use a VDA that uses an Analog Devices amplifier.  It can handle 8 75 ohm outputs but only 5 50 ohm outputs.  It's not a big problem because you can daisy chain multiple inputs together.  But it's something to keep in mind.

Ed

[TheSteve]

I used a modified VDA previously and the output quality was crap. Obviously they vary in quality like everything else, the one I chose was clearly junk.