[AMRadio] The Viking II is FINALLY starting to work

[Geoff/W5OMR]

Ellen Rugowski wrote:
> Hi Everybody,
>   

Hi, Ellen! :-)

> The Viker loaded up, and finally produced power (about 125W on CW, key down). Plate current is not maxed, but still may be a little high (about 220 mA), on key down.  

Completely the expected output power for the indicated plate current.  
220mA is about where the book says to load it on AM... I think you can 
even go a bit more on CW but you'll probably get closer to chirps and 
clicks if you load it 'all the way'.  Even on phone, it's better on the 
6146's to drop the plate current down to just under 200mA (say 180 or 
190mA).  You're not drawing as much current though the secondary of the 
modulation transformer and the difference in power output is 90w vs 
110.  Who's gonna know?

> Also. a couple of times when I keyed down, I saw some smoke curling up out of either the area of the finals, or the loading capacitor.  I'm not sure which is the culprit.  

good luck on finding that culprit.  I hope, for your sake, that it's 
just dust.

>  Per Rodger's suggestions, I'll check things out some more today, now that I'm not so tired (I didn't finish working on it until almost 11:30 PM).  
>   

sometimes, it's hard to see the forest for all those trees in the way 
;-)  Take a break from your project once in a while and then come back 
to it, to gain a new/different perspective.

-- 
Driving your AM Rig without a scope, 
is like driving your car at night, without headlights. (K4KYV)

--
73 = Best Regards,
-Geoff/W5OMR