I've come to the Alignment and Test, Part II. I think I'm having a problem under the BFO test.

Following the instructions, I switch to 40m, hook up the frequency counter to TP2, and get a reading of 4913.52. The manual says I should get something between 4908 and 4918. So far, so good.

Next, I go to the part where you determine the BFO range. After hitting Band+, I get a reading of 4917.54 kHz. The manual says you need >= 4916.3, and it's usually between 4916--4917. Maybe a tad high, but looks good to me. After hitting Band-, I get a reading of 2456.11 kHz. The manual says it must be <= 4912.7 (which it most certainly is) but it is usually about 4909--4912 (which is isn't, by a long shot). This results in a range of 2461.43. The manual says it must be >= 3.6 (which it is, by a lot), but it's typically 4--6 kHz.

It looks like I'm meeting the letter of the law based on the >= and <= requirements, but I'm nowhere near the typical ranges on the BFO low freq. and range.

Following this test in the manual is some info on what to do if the frequencies are too high or too low:

First off, I did not use a frequency counter to adjust C22 on the control board, I used a separate receiver and hooked up a wire from its antenna jack to the 4 MHz crystal, as described in the manual. This resulted in me turning C22 less than 30 degrees counter clock wise (anti clock wise). This seems reasonable to me, so I don't think C22 is off by very much. However, I think I might want to try using a frequency counter, to get a little more accuracy in calibration. Could anybody recommend an affordable frequency counter? I've never shopped around for them, so I have no clue as to the price, etc.

The third point mentions I might have shorted out part of L33. Looking under a loupe, I did not see any evidence of a short, and in fact, I can slide L33 underneath R116, it doesn't appear that heating R116 affected L33.

The fourth point mentions L33 could be broken. I put my DMM on the tiny leads attached to R116 and got 1.7 Ohms. Does this sound reasonable?

The final point says to check the capacitors and diodes in the BFO circuit. After another quick look, this appears to be OK to my eyes.

Any help would be appreciated!


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