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Frequency Standard - GPS or Rubidium?

B

bart

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi all,

I'm looking for some sort of frequency standard (10 MHz ref.?).

Ebay has rubdium standards for under $100.00 and there are GPS
controlled OXCO standards for $100.00 plus.

My question :
Is a 10-20 year old rubidium standard more accurate (even with aging
drift) that a newer GPS OXCO?

I can't afford a GPS corrected rubidium ( ~$700.00+).

I just want to recalibrate my so-so frequency counters .. to hopefully
within 10 Hz..?

Opinions?

Thanks for reading! :)

Cheers!
Bart
 

davenn

Moderator
Sep 5, 2009
14,254
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
14,254
Hi all,
I'm looking for some sort of frequency standard (10 MHz ref.?).
Ebay has rubdium standards for under $100.00 and there are GPS
controlled OXCO standards for $100.00 plus.
My question :
Is a 10-20 year old rubidium standard more accurate (even with aging
drift) that a newer GPS OXCO?
I can't afford a GPS corrected rubidium ( ~$700.00+).
I just want to recalibrate my so-so frequency counters .. to hopefully
within 10 Hz..?
Opinions?
Thanks for reading! :)
Cheers!
Bart

Hey Bart,
A timely question, a number of my fellow amateur radio op's and myself have been buying up the rubidium
standards from a china ebay supplier recently and have found them to be very very !!! stable ... in fact they are
that stable that you can see a GPS disciplined osc. doing its periodic pulling of the osc. into line :)
its a neat trick to do on an oscilloscope. my mates and I are into microwave comms
and using either GPS or rubidiums as a reference for the local osc. synthesisers
The advantage of the GPS disc. osc is that it runs off 12V where the rubidiums need 24V 24V is a bit harder to produce when on a hilltop !
The rubidiums are great in the shack to split up the 10MHz and feed it as a stable reference to spec an's counters, sig gene's etc
We found the rubidiums to be stable and accurate to within 0.001Hz :D
seriously amazing

Dave
VK2TDN
Sydney
Oz
 

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