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Reviews For: Grandads Electronics 100 kHz Crystal Calibrator kit

Category: Ham Shack Accessories

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Review Summary For : Grandads Electronics 100 kHz Crystal Calibrator kit
Reviews: 1MSRP: 17.95
Description:
A very stable xtal calibrator oscillator Kit with harmonic marker signals every 100 kHz from the bottom of HF to well into VHF or higher
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.novatech-instr.com/grandadselectronics.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
AA8VE Rating: 2008-10-17
Super stable and accurate Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought this kit about 6 months ago and wanted a marker generator that was more accurate than the designer had intended so I contacted the designer and he was very good about working with me to make this oscillator super accurate. The original design and intent was just to find a close freq marker to help align the tuning scale or range of old AM radios but I wanted something that could be zero beat to WWV at 10 MHz and everyplace else on the HF spectrum. The designer found the small crystals he was using weren't very accurate but he found some from a different supplier that would tune right to zero beat on WWV at 10 Mhz and that was all I needed.

The amazing thing is how accurate and stable this oscillator is. I can tune a SSB receiver to about 500 Hz off of WWV's carrier so I can hear it as an audio tone and turn this calibrator on right from a cold start at room temperature and it is so close that with both WWV's carrier and the calibrator running into the receiver the S-meter will sway only very slowly like less than one cycle per second! I can leave it on all day and it will stay within 2 or 3 Hz with WWV or shut it off and back on in 5 hours and it will run right at zero beat again. It's a very stable oscillator that really doesn't need any warm up time.

This was my experience with it and it's been a fantastic freq standard to have in the shack. I can align all my radios to be accurate to their freq display and check them for drift and how long it takes them to come up to stable temperature. Most digitally tuned HF rigs can only be adjusted to the nearest 10 Hz and this calibrator is plenty accurate for that and it can be used to find the edges of a band for homebrew rigs and to locate the 100 kHz points in their tuning range. It can also be used to calibrate the tuning span of older analog radios weather they are PTO or capacitance tuned so the tuning span matches the tuning scale of the radio. There is also a 400 Hz modulated tone for AM radios alignment.

The seller offers a full refund if your not happy with the unit plus he's prompt to respond to e-mails the address can be found on the web site. There may be a limited supply of these calibrators depending on demand so if anyone wishes to get one it would be wise to act quickly, at least contact the seller to ask questions and find out about availability.

73 Jeff AA8VE