[FLWSS] Marker project 0311

[George Presley]

OK,

Here is where we are on the ref oscillators. A stand alone .1 ppm reference
oscillator is state of the art and precision you only find in expensive test
equipment. And, to push that stability up to 10 GHz and stay inside the
transceivers band-pass (2.5 KHz nom.), the tolerance is still +/- 1 KHz.

The whole object of this Marker thing is to have a "work anywhere" portable
stand-alone calibrated source that will place any station or stations, that
uses these markers, inside the band-pass of the other stations. Only fine
tuning will ever be required. You will be fully compatible with any station
that has GPS (or other) stability of .1 ppm or better. This marker will
probably be the most accurate piece of equipment you will ever own.

The good and bad is, the equipment we manage to put on the air has
reasonable Short Term Stability but very questionable frequency calibration.
Under weak signal conditions, calibration is even more critical.

Enough sell.... The final cost of a ref. oscillator could still be under
$50. Joe has something looking good, but at present, the "off the shelf"
ref. prices are being quoted at about $175-200. This is mostly because of
the small quantities. You and I can't fix that.

All interested please give me feedback on what your choke point price is. I
know I'm having to re-calibrate and do some reality grounding. We are far
from checking out all sources but I wanted a benchmark for now. It may take
longer, but a surplus item may become our salvation.

George K4RSV