[ARC5] WHINK and crystals.

[T. Comstock]

Hi Ken

Do you start with fresh WHINK each time you restart the clock?

thanks,
terry
W7CJ



 
 Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 21:39:33 -0000
 From: "Kenneth G. Gordon" <kgordon2006 at frontier.com>
 To: ARC5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
 Subject: [ARC5] WHINK and crystals.

 Yesterday I decided to fire up the GRC-109 for the first
 time in a couple of years, so I dug out 
 my box of crystals, and set the rig up on the bench.
 
 The first crystal I grabbed was my only 7025 rock, and I
 plugged it in and pressed the key.
 
 Nothing.
 
 Hmmm....says I...
 
 So I checked all the voltages, took the transmitter ouf of
 its box to make sure everything was 
 lighting up, etc. Everything was normal.
 
 So, I grabbed another crystal and tried it. Viola!
 Everything worked fine.
 
 Took the 7025 crystal apart to find it split in two pieces
 right across from one corner to the 
 other.
 
 I took one of those FT-243s I had bought to try moving them
 into the ham bands, a 6975 Khz 
 rock. I plugged it into the '109 and it fired right up. The
 frequency counter read 6975.35 KHz.
 
 I took that one apart, carefully, and dropped the crystal
 blank into a cup I had made by cutting 
 the bottom couple of inches off a much larger styrofoam cup,
 marking it carefully with skull 
 and cross bones, and pouring 1/8" of WHINK into.
 
 After about 30 minutes of soaking in the WHINK, I carefully
 fished it out with a pair of 
 tweezers and washed it off in cold water. It had moved up
 500 Hz. to 6579.88 KHz.
 
 Calculating the shift-rate at approximately 2 KHz/hour, I
 left the crystal in the stuff for the next 
 14 hours. Now it oscillates vigorously at 7009 KHz.
 
 Final calculations show approximately 2.2 KHz/hour of
 soaking in WHINK.
 
 To get it to 7025 KHz, I need to soak it another 7.3 hours,
 or 7 hours and 18 minutes.
 
 It is now 2:40 PM here. I'll let it soak until 9:58 PM.
 
 Let's see how close I can get to my goal of 7025 KHz.
 
 Ken W7EKB