4 ms·

The rubidium does not deplete (it's a closed system), but does settle on the glass. Supposedly you can heat the glass to turn all the rubidium into gas again, g

The rubidium does not deplete (it's a closed system), but does settle on the glass. Supposedly you can heat the glass to turn all the rubidium into gas again, giving you theoretically infinite lifetime. I picked up a used PRS-10 on ebay for $250. It's a small but great oscillator, still made today. The manufacturer SRS claims 20 years lifetime, and mine has had 13 years of runtime, so I should be able to get 7 years out of it hopefully. The 11W1 DSub connector they used on the other hand is stupidly expensive. Cesium oscillators on the other hand do deplete their cesium (by design), as mentioned by CuriousMarc in the video. The tube in his unit was probably replaced at least twice, at a cost of >80k. The high performance tubes fare even worse because they "burn" through their cesium at a 3x rate. The 5071 successor by HP-Agilent-Symmetricom-Microsemi is the most frequently used COTS clock that contributes to UTC.

segfaultbuserr 7y ago
> Supposedly you can heat the glass to turn all the rubidium into gas again, giving you theoretically infinite lifetime. Thanks for the tip, that's interesting. I never know that they can be renewed in this way. > Cesium oscillators on the other hand do deplete their cesium (by design), as mentioned by CuriousMarc in the video. The tube in his unit was probably replaced at least twice, at a cost of >80k. Sad story. Recently I was browsing a web store that sells decommissioned U.S. military equipment. I was here to search for some cheap RF power meters, and I was surprised to see a HP 5071 in the listing. The vendor noted that he knew nothing about the equipment and information was welcomed. For a moment, I was thinking about sending him a service manual from the HP archive, before I realized it was simply impossible to get it up and running again without replacing the tube :( > The 5071 successor by HP-Agilent-Symmetricom-Microsemi Aha, the old Hewlett-Packard was truly a unique company. Its electronic technology has at least three separate chains of succession. Test Equipment: HP-Agilent-Keysight Semiconductor: HP-Agilent-Avago-Broadcom (Broadcom ended production of most HP parts, so now it's mostly dead, RIP...) Frequency Standard: HP-Agilent-Symmetricom-Microsemi
- CamperBob2 7y ago
  And now: Frequency Standard: HP-Agilent-Symmetricom-Microsemi-Microchip

segfaultbuserr 7y ago

> Supposedly you can heat the glass to turn all the rubidium into gas again, giving you theoretically infinite lifetime. Thanks for the tip, that's interesting. I never know that they can be renewed in this way. > Cesium oscillators on the other hand do deplete their cesium (by design), as mentioned by CuriousMarc in the video. The tube in his unit was probably replaced at least twice, at a cost of >80k. Sad story. Recently I was browsing a web store that sells decommissioned U.S. military equipment. I was here to search for some cheap RF power meters, and I was surprised to see a HP 5071 in the listing. The vendor noted that he knew nothing about the equipment and information was welcomed. For a moment, I was thinking about sending him a service manual from the HP archive, before I realized it was simply impossible to get it up and running again without replacing the tube :( > The 5071 successor by HP-Agilent-Symmetricom-Microsemi Aha, the old Hewlett-Packard was truly a unique company. Its electronic technology has at least three separate chains of succession. Test Equipment: HP-Agilent-Keysight Semiconductor: HP-Agilent-Avago-Broadcom (Broadcom ended production of most HP parts, so now it's mostly dead, RIP...) Frequency Standard: HP-Agilent-Symmetricom-Microsemi

CamperBob2 7y ago
And now: Frequency Standard: HP-Agilent-Symmetricom-Microsemi-Microchip