Frequency Standard - GPS or Rubidium?

[bart]

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]

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
seriously amazing

Dave
VK2TDN
Sydney
Oz