It's such a great feeling, so I know you all will put up with a
little celebrating.
I got #5630 to the 40m transmitter alignment stage a couple of weeks
ago. By then, all it had needed was reheating a cold joint that had
kept the backlight off, and one additional 1 pF capacitor to drop the
low end of the BFO a little.
But, on the 40m alignment, the rig performed great at 2 watts and I
thought I was home free, though I had the stray thought that I would
be better off if it did not work right off the bat. That way, I would
get to troubleshoot and actually learn more about the radio than by
just assembling it.
It didn't take long to get my wish. The thing just couldn't develop
any more power than about two watts even when more was requested. I
started fretting about my torroids which I thought I had wound and
tinned extremely carefully.
Well, I got out my DMM and my 'scope and started measuring voltages
and tracing as time allowed. I very quickly managed to slip on Q6
with my probe and short open R50, in spite of knowing this was a
danger. I emailed Scott and he sent me another resistor in no time.
He also assured me that I was now a member of a none-too-exclusive
club, which made me feel only a little better.
Replacing that, I was pleased to see that I was back from no power to
2 watts, and it was then that I managed to hunt down an open RFC 13.
I have no idea how it got that way, since it hadn't been overheated,
I didn't think, but it was definitely open. Scott sent one of those
upon request too, and I was pleased to find it waiting when I got
home from a long weekend today.
I didn't expect it to solve the whole power problem, but it sure did.
I aligned the whole rig and finished putting it together and it works
FB on all bands. I can't believe what I can hear. The XYL isn't
letting me stay up any later, but I plan to give the rig a workout
tomorrow, and then to get to work on all the bags and boxes of
options that I have lying around, but I am one happy man!
Great rig, great company, great reflector!
73,
Oscar, WV1C
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