[Boatanchors] Int'l Crystal Closing their doors in May

[manualman at juno.com]

There are lots of companies that make crystals. The problem is that many
will not just make one crystal for a specific frequency or if they would,
the initial setup charges would be out of this world.

ICM was/is amateur friendly and their pricing for single lot crystals was
reasonable. Plus, unlike many other companies, they kept a detailed
documented history on many of the vintage, and not so vintage rigs, as to
the type of oscillators the crystal would be used in, so they could
tailor the crystal to guarantee it would work in a rig. A specific
crystal made at "X" frequency by different manufacturers without knowing
the specific circuit parameters, does not guarantee that they would all
work properly, or at all, in the circuit. Tolerance, frequency stability,
load and shunt capacitance, resistance, drive level are parameters a
crystal manufacture needs to know in order to make a crystal at a
specific frequency.

The last time I checked with Bomar, which was years ago, their single
price to make a crystal at a specific frequency was in the stratosphere.
I was also told that JAN doesn't make specific crystals anymore but have
not confirmed that. Sentry Crystals, who also made single lot crystals,
was bought by ICM back in 2005.

Pete, wa2cwa


On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 16:48:04 -0500 Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
writes:
> I don't believe I recommended buying off-shore.  I theorized on a
> possible reason ICM is going out of business.
> 
> There are alternatives to ICM.  Don't know if they are better or 
> worse
> but they are all American:  JAN, Bomar, Crystek.
> 
> Carling, do you grind crystals to order?  Or do you just order, 
> like
> everyone else, repack and resell?
> 
> 73
> 
> Rob
> K5UJ