A couple of Hydrogen masers:
At the bottom of this KVARZ CH1-75 active H-maser is a round holy object:
Inside is an RF coil, part of the HFO (high frequency oscillator), the RF dissociator which converts normal H2 gas into H+ ions (aka protons):
The H-maser wasn't working well. The problem was intermittant arcing and melting of teflon insulation:
A replacement was carefully measured and formed:
And soldered into place:
The open-ended teflon hardline simply acts as a small capacitor to coarse tune the HFO discharge frequency. The air trimmer cap does the fine tuning:
Yes, my PC background screen is CIMG3274.JPG (1600x1200)
An email with KVARZ suggests the easy way to test if the HFO is working is to listen to FM radio (~100 MHz) or see if it ignites a neon bulb:
Oh, that orange glow (neon):
Oh, that purple glow (hydrogen):
Money shot:
