I do not own the 53132A, but I own a 53131A and they are similar.  The
53132A is rated at 150ps time interval resolution , the 53131A is rated
at 500 ps resolution.  I believe the 53132A is 12 digit and the 53131A
is 10 digit.

I bought mine about 2 years after they came out, I got one from a test
equipment leasing company for around $1100 US.  I have only had one
problem with mine, the fan failed.  It runs all the time, if the unit is
plugged in to power – even if the unit is off on the power switch. 
Called HP and they do not sell the fan, they want to sell you the whole
power supply which they wanted a small fortune for.  But, I found
Digi-Key carried the exact fan, and I bought 2 units for just under $50
US about 10 years ago.  And now if I am not using the counter,  I unplug it.

Other problems noted, from other people, is the display can go dim on
you.  Its vacuum florescent and at one time, the Chinese were selling
replacements around $100 US.

Amateur’s have made third party boards for the units.  One adds the
pre-scaler, for the “C” input, you can buy them up to 12 GHz or so.  I
bought a 3 GHz unit, as the normal frequency range as a counter is
limited to 225 MHz.

Also available is high stability oscillator boards, some a working
product, some bare boards, for do it yourself.  I bought one with a
Morion MV-89A oscillator, as on occasion, I took the unit portable to go
work on transmitters.  But for time interval work, the standard time
base is fine.

On 4/27/23 17:45, Roger Brinkman via time-nuts wrote:

Hi

The magic link does not seem to work from the US.

A few thoughts:

1. You will pay extra for the 3 GHz input. As mentioned in other posts, there are alternatives. This
   applies to any of the 5313x or 5323x counter.

2. Pricing on the 5313x counters varies a lot over time. Shipping also plays a part. Sub $500 (US)
   delivered is a good deal on any 5313x counter. To me, anything over $1,000 is a bit high for a “good
   deal: sort of price.

Yes, the 53131 and 53132 just got tossed into one big lump. Oddly enough, eBay does not always
distinguish between the two. You can find them priced in a very confusing fashion (relative to each
other).

These days one should also watch the 5323x counter. They have been out long enough to be running
around eBay. There are ample examples of 5313x counters listed above the “good deal" price for a
5323x counter. For most applications, the 5323x is going to be a better bet ….

Bob

These devices are widely available in China market, and the average price
is  about USD300.
Shipping costs with SF express ( high quality, about 7 days delivery)
is about USD150.

Best wishes
Yanjun

Bob Camp via time-nuts time-nuts@lists.febo.com 于2023年4月28日周五 10:15写道：

On 4/27/2023 4:34 PM, Brett Fanoga via time-nuts wrote:

I worked for the HP Santa Clara Division during the era of these
instruments, which were code named "Major League Baseball" (MLB).  I suspect
(based on other HP instruments) that the fan is necessary to keep
the power transformer from overheating due to its own core loss.
And the power transformer is connected to the AC line at all times,
to save the hassle of a line level on/off switch, with all the
safety problems.  Fans running 24/7 are well known not to last for
more than a year or so.

And yes, vacuum fluorescents are famous for wearing out.  My N8LP
digital vector wattmeter puts the VF display to sleep after a
few minutes to extend the life.

Add on prescalers using dynamic flip flops are fairly fussy about
about broadband noise floor, etc.

This reminds me of a humorous anecdote.  I was in a meeting with
the designer of the MLB FPGA and Len Cutler.  The MLB engineer
offered his opinion about some technical issue, after which
he appended it with a self-deprecating remark along the lines
of "of course I've only been here for 30 years".  As if on
cue, Len angrily fired back with "well, I've been here 40 years".
This was classic Len behavior.  I kind of felt bad for the
MLB engineer.

Rick N6RK

Hi

The power supply in the 5313x counters was made by who knows who
( = HP bought it from the low bidder). They are very much the weak point
in the device. Will yours fail tomorrow? Who knows …..

The “cheap answer” to the replacement issue is to buy a 53181. They are
not a popular item. They don’t fetch much compared to the other counters
in the series. They do share the same power supply. We  swapped a
lot of supplies between the 181 and 131/132 counters. (as in dozens …).

Bob

Curious. We had about eight 5313x counters operating until a few years ago.
These were in logging systems and cal setups, where they were never powered
off, some for 20+ years. There were no power supply failures.

Cheers
Michael

On Mon, 1 May 2023 at 4:44 am, Bob Camp via time-nuts <
time-nuts@lists.febo.com> wrote:

Not to argue with you, but it seems inconceivable that any fan would
last 20 years, going 24/7.  Maybe the fans quit, and the instruments
continued to run w/o them.  Might be OK if in a cool room.

73
Rick N6RK

On 4/30/2023 2:51 PM, Michael Wouters via time-nuts wrote:

Hi

We ran them in logging systems and on benches. I’d guess the
group was in the 100+ range. At the point the supplies really became
an issue, most of them were well over 20 years old.

If I’d just kept my mouth shut, I could have pulled the “dead ones” out
of the pile and hauled them home … (along with the scrap 181’s ).
Some folks just can’t keep from opening they mouth :(

Since the supplies came from an outside source, it is very unclear
which supply went into this or that counter. It is a pretty good bet that
the counters came out of a fairly narrow range of production dates.

Bob

Hi

Some, but not all, of the counters we saw die also had fan issues. I agree that once
the fan goes, the power supply probably is running on borrowed time. Cleaning the
fans and checking their function was part of the yearly “calibration” of the counters.
I have no idea how may fans got replaced as part of that process.

Bob