Gentlemen, I am interested in getting an old hp 5065A Rubidium frequency standard working again. I recall that if one of these units is left not running for a long time that the rubidium atoms get adsorbed onto the glass of the cell and filter. I recall long ago having a note as to how to get the rubidium off the surfaces again. It involved unsoldering some of the connections to the RVFR and connecting instead to a external DC supply for a week or so. I guess this was to heat the internals well above their usual working temperature. But I've forgotten the details, what current and voltage is required. One could obviously cause permanent damage by overdoing it. Does anybody know about this? Regards John P

On 10/29/2016 9:42 AM, John Ponsonby wrote: > Gentlemen, > I am interested in getting an old hp 5065A Rubidium frequency standard working again. I recall that if one of these units is left not running for a long time that the rubidium atoms get adsorbed onto the glass of the cell and filter. John, the procedure for that is on page 3-1 and 2 of the manual, but it may not be necessary. Lots has been published about these and I'm sure a Google search will turn them up, in particular there's an Italian authored pdf from, I think, a member of this group. There are some electrolytic caps that will need to be checked and replaced where necessary. Having said that mine came back to life after being in dusty storage for about ten years and all it needed was a good clean... Dan

Hi John, you can visit the pages: http://www.timeok.it/hp5065a-corner-3/ regards, Luciano timeok From "time-nuts" time-nuts-bounces@febo.com To "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" time-nuts@febo.com Cc Date Sat, 29 Oct 2016 10:47:55 -0700 Subject Re: [time-nuts] hp 5065A On 10/29/2016 9:42 AM, John Ponsonby wrote: > Gentlemen, > I am interested in getting an old hp 5065A Rubidium frequency standard working again. I recall that if one of these units is left not running for a long time that the rubidium atoms get adsorbed onto the glass of the cell and filter. John, the procedure for that is on page 3-1 and 2 of the manual, but it may not be necessary. Lots has been published about these and I'm sure a Google search will turn them up, in particular there's an Italian authored pdf from, I think, a member of this group. There are some electrolytic caps that will need to be checked and replaced where necessary. Having said that mine came back to life after being in dusty storage for about ten years and all it needed was a good clean... Dan _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.