[Boatanchors] Wanted FT 243 crystal socket

Sun, 02 May 2004 18:28:34 -0500

Excercise caution when custom fabricating your own crystal socket adapters.
:-)   I wanted to use my batch of HC-6/U type crystals in my Rangers, so
tore down an FT-243 holder, superglued an HC-6/U phenolic socket to the end
of it, and soldered the FT-243 ribbon leads internally. The HC-6/U crystals
fire up great in this rig but unfortunately don't want to stop oscillating
when un-keyed. I suspect I added too much stray capacitance with the extra
lead length inside the FT-243 holder. I haven't investigated further yet,
maybe grinding the FT-243 holder down to almost nothing but a base and a set
of leads and soldering the other socket directly to that will work. I'm
going to keep fooling with it, hate for all these ham band non-FT-243
crystals to go to waste, and FT-243's are getting hard to find and
expensive. Too bad somebody doesn't make some sort of ready to buy HC-6
adapter for FT-243 sockets that worked out of the box, I suspect you could
sell us Ranger and Valiant owners a bunch of them. At least you'd sell a few
to me. :-)  Also, it would be nice to find somebody selling new FT-243's for
less than $12-$15 each (or more).
73, Jerry W5KP

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William L Howard" <[email protected]>
To: "Glen Zook" <[email protected]>; "Hallicrafters list"
<[email protected]>; "[email protected]"
<[email protected]>; "armyradios" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 11:59 AM
Subject: [Boatanchors] Wanted FT 243 crystal socket

> William L Howard <[email protected]> wrote:
>  Does any one know of a source for sockets for the FT 243 crystals?
>
> > Worse comes to worse, you can use a "normal" octal tube socket and get
> "two for one"!  The FT-243 will fit between every-other connection.> ---
> >
>  I should have been a bit more specific. I am trying to make a crystal
> adapter for a WW II Japanese type 94-5 transmitter. The actual crystal
> is 1 1/4 " wide, 1 1/4 " deep and about
> 1/2 " high. It has metal shims on the side that make contact with the
> circuit. I am thinking of a plastic plug with a crystal socket mounted
> on the front. So I need something about 1 inch by 1/2 inch.
>
> Bill Howard
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Boatanchors mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
> ** List Administrator - Duane Fischer, W8DBF/W9WZE **
> ** For Assistance: [email protected] **
> $$ For vintage radio info, see the HCI web site $$
> http://www.w9wze.org
>
>