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Looking for used frequency counter recommendations

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bdunham7:

--- Quote from: unimorpheus on September 29, 2023, 03:59:05 pm ---What counter makes and models should I be looking out for on eBay if I wanted an oven controlled time base, at least 8-10 digit precision and high signal sensitivity? Budget maybe up to about 2K max so I know I'm looking for something older but well built. Thanks.

--- End quote ---

I have an HP5316B with options 003 and 004 (prescaler and OCXO) that is rated for 15mV sensitivity out to 650MHz.  It is 8 digit but can be pushed to 9 using longer gate times and letting it overflow.  The main input channel is 1M and works well out beyond its rating to 160MHz or so in overflow, although probably at a somewhat reduced sensitivity.  The prescaler input is 50R and works from 50MHz up to 1.3GHz.  IDK if those specs work for you.

You can find them on eBay for a few hundred dollars, so you'll want to buy the nicest one you can find if you go this route.  If you want the Option 003/Channel C prescaler, it has to be installed already.  If you want Option 004/OCXO, you can easily make your own using a board designed by a fellow EEVBlogger--this is what I did.  Or you can use an external reference. 

4thDoctorWhoFan:
I like my HP 5386A.  It works great and has up to 11 digit resolution.  I use it with a external 10Mhz reference and could not ask for anything more.

unimorpheus:
Thank you all for the suggestions. I ended up going a much cheaper route as show in the pic just to get this done. A cheap Chinese GPSDO reference and MMIC amp was all I needed, for this job anyway. Still want to upgrade the counter but this does give me a lot more to consider. I think there is a lot of retired gear coming out of telcom that can be repurposed and give us amateurs / hobbyist much more capability than we could have ever hoped for. 

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