A new frequency counter in its opened packaging on a desk, next to a laptop running a comparison measurement

The tracking page said 8 to 12 business days.

It arrived this morning. I counted: five days.

The Package

I ordered the replacement frequency counter on February 18, the same day I sent the original one to Mikhail. I chose the same model — VC-3165, 47 euros — on the reasoning that if two people are measuring the same thing, they should ideally be measuring it with identical instruments. This reasoning no longer applies since Mikhail now has the original and I have the replacement, but the principle seemed sound at the time.

The package was smaller than I remembered. This is always the case with mail. You imagine the parcel and then the actual object arrives and it is somehow both exactly what you ordered and slightly surprising.

I opened it at 09:47. The counter was wrapped in a thin foam sheet and one layer of bubble wrap. No manual — I still have the PDF from last time.

I plugged it in.

The Calibration

The question was simple: does the new counter agree with the Nokia Method?

If yes: I have two independent measurement systems for tomorrow. If they both show the anomaly at the same time, that is not an artifact of one method. If one shows it and the other does not, I have a hardware problem. Either way, I learn something.

If no: I have a problem to solve before 14:00 tomorrow.

I ran both systems simultaneously for ninety minutes, measuring the same outlet via a splitter.

Time window VC-3165 (new) Nokia Method Difference
10:00-10:30 50.003 Hz 50.004 Hz 0.001 Hz
10:30-11:00 49.997 Hz 49.997 Hz 0.000 Hz
11:00-11:30 50.001 Hz 50.002 Hz 0.001 Hz

Maximum observed difference: 0.001 Hz.

The Tuesday anomaly typically measures -0.15 to -0.21 Hz. The noise floor between my two systems is 0.001 Hz. The margin is approximately 150 to 210 to 1.

This is acceptable.

Ruslan’s Assessment

I emailed Ruslan the calibration results at 11:34.

He replied at 11:51. The email was 312 words, which for Ruslan constitutes a telegram.

The relevant part:

You now have one more frequency counter than you had on the day you decided to ship the first one. This seems like progress, though I note that the correct sequence would have been to order the replacement before shipping the original. I am not criticizing. I am observing. There is a difference. — R.K.

He is correct on all counts.

The Setup for Tomorrow

I now have three measurement systems for a single observer:

  1. VC-3165 (new) — primary. Plugged into outlet A, continuous logging.
  2. Nokia Method — secondary. Same outlet via splitter, Dima’s Python script running.
  3. Ц4353 “The Veteran” — manual backup. I will take a reading by hand every five minutes and write it in a notebook. This is redundant and inefficient and I am doing it anyway.

Mikhail has the original VC-3165. He confirmed this morning that it is powered on and working. His clock is synchronized. He knows what to do.

Ruslan has his own multimeter and logging sheet, same as every Tuesday for the past six weeks.

The measurement window opens at 14:00 local time for both Almaty and Ruslan. For Mikhail, his 14:00 is 12:00 our time — two hours earlier. If the anomaly is local, Mikhail will see it at his 14:37 (our 12:37) and we will see it separately at our 14:37. If the anomaly is global, Mikhail will see nothing at his 14:37 and we will see it at ours — and the UTC timestamps will align.

I have explained this to Mikhail twice. He said: “Understood both times.”

On Redundancy

I have spent thirty years with exactly one measurement system for everything. One multimeter. One method. One observer.

The reason for this was not philosophy. It was that nobody else was interested, and I could not afford more equipment, and the work was — as I have been told on multiple occasions — “not the kind of thing that attracts collaboration.”

I now have, for tomorrow’s measurement:

  • Three instruments at my desk
  • One instrument at Ruslan’s location
  • One instrument in Novosibirsk
  • Two observers I did not know eight weeks ago
  • One technical advisor who is fourteen years old

The parcel arrived this morning. I did not expect it until next week.

Tomorrow is Tuesday.

Current status:

  • VC-3165 (replacement): calibrated, confirmed, primary instrument for tomorrow
  • Nokia Method: confirmed matching within 0.001 Hz, will run as secondary
  • Mikhail: confirmed, synchronized, ready
  • Ruslan: confirmed, ready, has already prepared his logging sheet (he mentioned this; I did not ask)
  • Measurement window: 14:00-15:00 local time, starting in approximately 28 hours
  • Emotional state: something that is probably readiness but feels like it could also be the other thing

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