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

[Rob Atkinson]

Yes, and that data archive they have for making crystals for vintage
gear is a big big loss.
This means, don't break the oscillator crystals in your A line sets!


Rob
K5UJ



On 3/12/17, manualman at juno.com <manualman at juno.com> wrote:
> 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
>