Earth: an oscillator and frequency standard
2023-11-01 16:00:02.188712+01 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
Earth: An Oscillator and Frequency Standard
Earth is a vintage, quality constructed, high-Q oscillator, composed of SiO2 Al Fe Ti, spherical, although not perfectly shaped (flat by about 1/298), and off-axis (about 23 °). During the 40 year test period, the average frequency of the oscillator was about a few parts in 108th below the nameplate value.
There appears to be no fine or coarse frequency adjustment on earth. In cases like this one must either use an external frequency synthesizer, or phase microstepper, to correct for the frequency error. Or one can post-process the data and apply corrections in software. The lack of electronic frequency adjustment prevents it from being used in a GPSDO.