> I think your an amateur trying to do an engineers job! Before you make any
> decisions about what is doing what to what, how do you know your counter does
> not drift? How do you know the accurace of your freq. counter? You checked it
> against WWV? Heck, if your going to do engineering work, take your counter to
> a qualified calibration shop and get it certified, not only for freq
> accuracy, but for it's own stability. Then and ONLY then can you draw
> conclusions about 'something' drifting. And before you go way off base and
> spend your $50 bucks because you want to play engineer, check the specs on
> your Omni 6. The Omni 6 is not a frequency standard, it is a AMATEUR radio
> piece of equipment. If you want a frequency standard, HP sell's them for only
> about $125,000.
Indeed, this IS an engineer's job. That's why I got into amateur radio,
hi hi. And Ten Tec is the best company in the world for encouraging
SOME repair work at home! Over the phone their engineers have given me
some info, and they wanted this data, even from a lowly Startek rated
at 1 ppm accuracy within a 10 degree temperature range. And, yes, I
watch against WWV, the counter is not perfect, but it does not seem
to drift like my master oscillator.
Now, this OMNI VI is way out of specs! I don't know why folks seem to
keep asking me about this, so here's some validation: the Ten Tec
technicians understand this problem and suggested I make these tests
based on the symptoms I described from the radio's behavior. They have
known about a problem in the early run OMNI's with "bad crystals" in
the ovens and have been known to replace the oven / crystal
combination to cure it. An engineer friend of mine explains that the
crystals are matched to the oven temperature for peak stability.
Frequency standard? Heck, I would be happy to tune in a CW station for
over a half hour without the signal dropping out of my passband. I am
not worried about the accuracy of the dial much, I'd just like to set
it to something nearby. 10 or 20 Hz is no big deal, and most other
cheap amateur transceivers can get within that range, as did my
previous (later run) OMNI VI - with ease and across a broad range
of operation.
Back to performing the tests. Wish me luck in finding the right data
that will pinpoint the problem so I won't have to spend triple the
$50, and wait for the UPS strike to end, hi hi.
Clark
WA3JPG
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