[FLWSS] FLWSS Digest, Vol 39, Issue 9

[n2cei at downeastmicrowave.com]

Message: 1Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:08:38 -0700From: "George Presley" Subject: [FLWSS] Marker project 0311To: "FLWSS Bulletin Board" Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"OK,Here is where we are on the ref oscillators. A stand alone .1 ppm referenceoscillator is state of the art and precision you only find in expensive testequipment. And, to push that stability up to 10 GHz and stay inside thetransceivers 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" portablestand-alone calibrated source that will place any station or stations, thatuses these markers, inside the band-pass of the other stations. Only finetuning will ever be required. You will be fully compatible with any stationthat has GPS (or other) stability of .1 ppm or better. This marker willprobably 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 hasreasonable 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 ofthe small quantities. You and I can't fix that.All interested please give me feedback on what your choke point price is. Iknow I'm having to re-calibrate and do some reality grounding. We are farfrom checking out all sources but I wanted a benchmark for now. It may takelonger, but a surplus item may become our salvation.George K4RSV ------------------------------

George, 
The choke point shouldn't excist for any one thats got over $500 per band invested and is not making contacts because they don't beleive their frequency cal!!

For me, I think we should be able to get a good source for around $100-$120 each for 10 or more. Maybe a bit more but it is what it is. As long as we can sample or have a money back guarranty why should it be an issue?

Steve

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