Universal Counter Suggestions / thoughts

[BloodyCactus]

size was a huge consideration for me; here is my racal dana 1992, right in the middle on top of a 10mhz rubidium frequency output. (you dont need that for the 1992, my 1992 has an ovenised oscillator).

[PaulAm]

Try
http://www.jks.com/5370/5370.html


I have one 

That was the link; the site was unresponsive when I went looking, but it's fine now.

The 5334a/b has also been mentioned.  If you get one of those, it's pretty easy to add the C channel  and get 1GHz.  It's just a matter of adding 4-5 parts on the pcb and changing a jumper.  If it doesn't come with the stabilized oscillator option, it benefits from an external reference.  The one I picked up had the internal crystal clipped out.  Not exactly tiny, but they stack nicely.

[devanno]

Ok everyone, once again thanks for all of your suggestions! GOHZU, I took the strong recommendations for the Racal Dana into consideration and found a spotless 1992 1.3 GHz unit with the OCXO option (04A) for only a few bucks more than the HP would have been, and this counter was in better shape.  Seller indicated that all the switches were in good working order, with good tactile feel, and he showed it hooked to an Agilent sig gen and an Agilent counter for comparison and also hooked to a GPS time base, and it all appeared very well within spec.

I've saved the info on the HP, however, regarding fans and that pesky relay in case I later change my mind.  The discussion here has been VERY helpful, and I've learned quite a bit along the way (which is why I'm doing any of this at all... learning).

   "Catch ya next time!"

[orin]

     All I can say is that I will not be in a quiet environment most of the time... my shop is in the "mechanical room" in my basement with the water heaters, furnace, sump pumps, etc.  It's dry, but it's not quiet.  Since I'm old and getting hard of hearing, no problem there!  :-)   Seriously, though, one side of my bench is 18" deep shelves... the horizontal space is not so much of an issue, and I can replace fans.  I wonder if that guy in the You Tube video had baseball cards stuck to the fan with clothes pins.

They really can be that loud... kind of like a 747 taking off (the 8568A SA is more like Concorde taking off).  It's easy and cheap enough to put a quieter fan in though.

Whatever, I cannot recommend the 2.7GHz counters that are on eBay for about $100.  I have one and after a few minutes of warmup, it drifts all over the place.  Also, the reference out at 13MHz has a glitch on the leading edge - perhaps I'll bring it home and investigate.

[babysitter]

Well, the reference is the easiest to improve part, for little money IMHO.

Wouldn't like to improve or fix the input channels much more than i did with mine - burned front-end resistors.

Re HP5334A Channel C - its not quite as easy as in the B Version.