[AMRadio] Trouble-shooting (was: Solved)

[John Lawson]

On Fri, 26 Jan 2007, Rick Brashear wrote:

> Well, I took the D-104 apart again just now and obviously I had a connection 
> problem.  It works fine.  I thought I cleaned everything earlier, but I 
> either missed something or I have an intermittent connection some where.


    After completing my 'station makeover' (I put everything into a large 
7' double rack) I first did the RF and ground wiring - fired up the rig, 
yay! it tunes up - radios and audio processing chain all working, Dow-Keys 
are dow-keying - fine.

   Then a couple of days later I check the modulation section of the 
Valiant - resting current is fine, but no Audio appears to be reaching the 
Mod Tranny.  Ah, sh*t...!  so I start in to checking things... audio is 
good all the way to the mic connector on the transmitter.  Suddenly life 
is not fun - the Valiant *barely* fits in the rack, it's 22" wide, exactly 
the distance between the inside rails - I modified the back rails, built a 
custom shelf for it, and figured out a complicated and very strenuous way 
to make it fit.  Remembering the Valiant is about 100 pounds and it's up 
in the rack at about 5' - getting it maneuvered in there is "not trivial" 
as They say - and now it looks like I have to drag the old girl *back 
down* out of the freakin' rack and get 'er hauled over to the bench - 
which, by the way, involves the disassembly and removal of everything 
above it as well - the Tuner and the WWV reciever and all the RF cabling.

   Now, depression sets in.

   Just before I start in on unwiring and unbolting everything, I go over 
the Valiant manual, just in case, and guess what....??

   The damn "clipper" is turned all the way over to "max smash" and 
nothing's getting through it at all. (It works 'backwards' - lower 
number/counter-clockwise = more clipping - stupid!)

   I had the screwdrivers out and ready to do an awful lot of difficult 
work - it's a Good Thing I had the brains to review the Manual - had I 
found that it was just my dumb "operator error" after removal and while on 
the bench - I'd probably be posting "For Sale: Parting out Valiant - one 
knob and some transformers - trannys may have dents and scratches - 
nothing else left..."  ;}



   Cheers

John
KB6SCO
DM09fg