
Museum of HP Clocks - KC8ZKF
http://www.leapsecond.com/hpclocks/
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semi-extrinsic
Old HP lab equipment is the bee's knees. I recently scored an HP 6261b power
supply _for free_ from work, and it is awesome. This monster delivers up to 50
amps DC at up to 24 volts, can also be current limited; rock solid with very
very low ripple and noise. Mainly because it's linear regulated and the six
big capacitors inside are the size of beer cans.

I didn't know it at the time, but these still go for $1500+ on ebay. A new
equivalent performance unit would be $5000+. Only downside is it's huge (4U
rackmount) and weighs 80 lbs.

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blackguardx
I once worked for an HP spin-off (Agilent) and scrounged an old but
serviceable spectrum analyzer for the rack in my cube. I remember lifting it
up to the top position one night and throwing my back out in the process. It
was only after lifting to head height that I could read the warning sticker
saying to use two people to lift because it weighed in excess of 80 lbs.
Instead of transformers like your power supply, it was full of ovenized
crystal oscillators.

~~~
gioele
> an HP spin-off (Agilent)

In my mind Agilent/Keysight is the real HP and the current HP just a PC-
related spin-off.

~~~
madengr
Ain't that the truth. HP is now known for shitty printers and low quality
computers.

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madengr
FWIW I live streamed the UTC leap second here. Skip to near the end. I had an
HP GPSDO in the upper left.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqWP4GXVQ-g&sns=em](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqWP4GXVQ-g&sns=em)

~~~
handedness
Outstanding!

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jimmyswimmy
Those guys were clever, and really did start the company out of a garage. I
have always enjoyed the story of how their breakthrough product -an
oscillator, or clock - was stabilized by no less than a light bulb. Sometimes
the simplest solution is itself pretty simple.

[http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/Bill%20Hewlett%20and%20hi...](http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/Bill%20Hewlett%20and%20his%20Magic%20Lamp.htm)

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budman1
Old story. We had some hydraulic valves in a control system that would
'scream' under certain input conditions. The techs had changed them out, and
the noise went with the valves. Vendor was positive that it could not be the
valves having a resonance in that range. Borrowed an HP audio spectrum
analyzer, and played back a cassette tape of the noise into it. Sent the
results to the vendor, and they were able to duplicate. HP Test Equipment FTW.

