Rubidium lamp source

I'm looking to do some tinkering with rubidium time sources. It seems
that the rubidium lamp is the toughest thing to get. Does anyone know
where one can buy rubidium lamps for this type of thing? As I
understand it, they don't need to have electrodes on them, just the
rubidium in a gas state.

Mike

 

[GregS]

In article <a29f0396-8a93-4956-a2c1-3d6503694856@j35g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>, mikeybarber01@gmail.com wrote:

I'm looking to do some tinkering with rubidium time sources. It seems
that the rubidium lamp is the toughest thing to get. Does anyone know
where one can buy rubidium lamps for this type of thing? As I
understand it, they don't need to have electrodes on them, just the
rubidium in a gas state.

Mike

Don't know, but why would you want to tinker? It seems the Rubidium stuff has been
widely used for different things. I used to play with the Cesium and Rubidium
standards at a tracking station. The thing about time standards, the near
term sability is only as good as a good xtal oscillator. Atomic
standards are for long term stability.

greg

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:52:22 -0700 (PDT), the renowned
mikeybarber01@gmail.com wrote:

I'm looking to do some tinkering with rubidium time sources. It seems
that the rubidium lamp is the toughest thing to get. Does anyone know
where one can buy rubidium lamps for this type of thing? As I
understand it, they don't need to have electrodes on them, just the
rubidium in a gas state.

Mike

You can get complete 10MHz rubidium standards on eBay for very
reasonable prices ($100-$200). Taken from cell phone base stations, I
think.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
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