[Boatanchors] Hand held frequency counters?

[Brian Clarke]

I do recall when the Optoelectronics units first came out that they 
'appeared' to be accurate. Crikey, with all those display digits, they must 
be accurate. Err, mustn't they? This was an argument I had many times with 
tech college students who had just acquired their 4.5 digit hand-held DMMs - 
they had no idea what 'accuracy' meant. But really, all that Optoelectronics 
counters had going for them was short-term reliability, ie, if you measured 
the same thing within a few seconds, you would get the a similar answer. 
Over the longer term, there was no such guarantee - which side had wandered 
or jittered the most - the signal you were measuring, or the reference 
inside the Optoelectronics device? 'Twere an interesting marketing exercise 
to substitute apparent resolution for non-apparent non-accuracy.

Think about this for a wee moment. Why do you think that all the better 
quality counters are fairly large, ie, not hand-held or pocketable? How do 
you insulate a crystal from the variability of outside temperature? How do 
you develop a front-end gate that presents a flat impedance and flat 
sensitivity over several decades of frequency? How do you develop ... Oh, I 
don't need to go on. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then don't 
complain if I tell you that your carrier wanders or is not where you claim 
it to be.

Marketing is not to be confused with truth. Is Optoelectronics still in 
business? I could find no reference on the web.

Can I also suggest that cutting the long tails to email trains is to be 
admired.

73 de Brian, VK2GCE.