Reinstalled the 30 nuts to the studs (of course one would not go on, so needed to use a die to clean up the threads, and of course it was in a place where the handle for the die could not be used.... so...) and turned the room back over the admiral for dressing. My thanks to all.

Aber auch in jene Weite führt der Weg. - Franz Kafka Steven Knudsen, Ph.D., P.Eng. www. techconficio.ca www.linkedin.com/in/knudstevenknudsen Du bist die Aufgabe. Kein Schüler weit und breit. - Franz Kafka

. -- Dave Emery N1PRE, die@dieconsulting.com DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493 "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either." _______________________________________________ time-nuts

The MMIC VCO is just a die (or a die in a package) and it's pretty much immune to external effects, since the resonator is built into the oscillator. We built some prototypes at JPL using the VCO and a GaAs divider, and the performance was better than DROs.

. -- Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die@dieconsulting.com DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493 "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either." _______________________________________________

. > > > -- > Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die@dieconsulting.com DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass > 02493 > "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten > 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - > in > celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now > either." > >

. > > -- > Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die@dieconsulting.com DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass > 02493 > "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten > 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - > in > celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now > either." > >

Most units that are well cared for “die” when the tube goes out and come back to life when it’s replaced. The tube life dominates the MTBF in this case. Rb’s are a device that by it’s (possibly unfortunate) physics needs to run hot. The vast majority in service are “miniature” in comparison to a 5071 or a 5065.

LB> Regarding flash/no-flash bootleg versions - mask ROM firmware LB> residing on the die does not support FTS functions (there is not LB> enough space for extra features and increasing the die size would LB> increase base product cost) so if you have FTS product then it LB> must have flash inside to run the code from.

on one chip, with bigger die size.