I ground many FT-243 surplus xtals into the 80 and 40 novice bands when I was a kid. Dad had a small balance weight, maybe 5-10gm, that was used for test. One just laid the xtal on the xmtr chassis, sat the weight on it, and read the freq. from a RX. No need for a holder. One could, of course, use another xtal as a reference point. I bought xtals for a dime and sold them for 50 cents...but it took some time and a little skill. Dad brought home two grades of carborundum dust, fine and finer... Your blanks are much larger, so I can imagine getting up to 25-20gm weights. A few trials will tell. I doubt you have balance weights, so solder up a stack of coins, maybe quarters.
Add one at a time, until you get good performance. Grind the bottom flat before the first try. I've thrown away quite a few loose plates from old large xtals. They would be good as the bottom surface. Wilson W4BOH _______________________________________________ Boatanchors mailing list [email protected] https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
