[ARC5] 10 meter BC-454 - BFO issues found.

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

This evening I removed the BFO can.

Shaking it before I opened it resulted in a sound like there was considerable gravel or small 
particles in it, some larger and some smaller.

When I opened the can, I found many chunks of broken ferrite material inside.

It looks very much like the transformer had been subjected to a severe current overload of 
some kind. The ferrite core was severely damaged, the two windings are damaged, and 
there are many various other bits of what I can only describe as "crap" in there. It looked 
burned in there too.

The core on which the two windings are wound is essentially junk. Poking at it with a small 
screwdriver results in more and more chunks coming from it. It is just plain shattered

I cannot figure out 1) why the BFO worked at all, and 2) what on earth someone did in the 
past to cause this sort of damage. I have never seen anything like this before.

No wonder I was having troubles with it.

I have a couple of other 1415 KHz BFO transformers around here somewhere. I think I may 
even have one that is NOS. If I don't, perhaps someone here has a spare. I'll let you know.

Gee....what next?

Ken W7EKB