[Elecraft] Frequency Counter

[Don Wilhelm]

Dennis,

I would not recommend ANY kit frequency counter if one will be using it 
for calibration purposes - unless you have some means of calibrating it.

I can recommend a recently calibrated HP or Fluke frequency counter - 
you can sometimes find them used at auction sites, but they may not have 
recent (and tracable) calibration.  Good calibration does cost dearly at 
a calibration lab.

To be properly used as a calibration device the instrument should have a 
tracable calibration accuracy of 10 times the accuracy that you seek 
when using it.  That means if you wish to achieve 1 Hz accuracy at 10 
MHz, that instrument must be calibrated to an accuracy of 10^-7 or 
better.  That kind of accuracy just cannot be achieved with an 
over-the-air signal from WWV - syncing to WWVB might be possible, but 
that is not easy for most ham/experimenter situations.  If you can find 
a GPS synced standard, you may be able to achieve 10^-8 or with care 
even 10^-9 in some cases.

You alone must decide what kind of accuracy you wish to achieve and make 
your decisions based on the specifications for the counter and the 
accuracy of your calibration techniques.

73,
Don W3FPR

Dennis Vavra wrote:
> Don,
> 
> Thanks for the info regarding the XG2/Freq Ctr. Could you recommend a make/model freq ctr for kit building? Iv'e looked on the MFJ web site, but if you have better ideas it would be of great help. Preferably one that is not too expensive!!
> Dennis Vavra,  AD5LY
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