Crystal replacement?

Unless you are able to find a low cost source of crystals, they can be very expensive these days. Some people have turned to Si5351 synthesiser boards as an alternative. I believe they can be programmed to provide outputs from kHz to VHF frequencies. But can these work with the programming source  removed so this is a true crystal replacement? Please let me know if you know how. 

If they can be used "stand alone" they become far more useful if they can be easily programmed. The ideal would be easy programming with a PC or Mac or even Android and then essentially a free standing oscillator module.

Crystal replacements

It is a very long time since I was fit enough to do serious project building work, but I know that buying crystals, unless you are buying very common frequencies, is expensive. Many now use synthesised sources instead as this can be much less expensive. Sadly, health issues have precluded me doing my own experiments. At one time, synthesised sources could be noisy, although I expect things have improved in the last 10 years. If you have used synthesised "crystal replacements" I'd be interested to hear what good solutions there are now.

Many years ago, I had ideas for a low cost 10m DSB rig. With the sunspot count likely to soon be on the up, perhaps it is time to dust this off.

Crystal alternative?

Buying crystals for specific frequencies is now getting very expensive. There may be a newer alternative.

See https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/a-crowdfunded-si5351-breakout-board-from-jason-nt7s/ .

This synthesised solution allows any frequency from 8kHz to 160MHz to be generated.