[Boatanchors] Station Set up follow up questions

[cemilton at aol.com]

Eugene,

Congrats on the lashup of the 51J and 100v................nice rigs.

Abt the "hum" from the Dow-Key........... is it possible the "hum" you 
hear is actually "chatter" due to the relay being mis-adjusted?  I've 
had a few of them and find that the solenoid sometimes chatters or hums 
depending on the setting of the armature inside.  Everything from 
actually bending (forming) the armature to adjusting the contact points 
on the SO-239's either in or out.  A combination of all these is 
sometimes needed.  The fibre plunger tip on the solenoid can also be 
worn just a bit and may need dressing.

And again, none of this may be applicable.  However, I did restore a 
D-K 117vac for a friend not too long ago and I ended up taking it apart 
and starting from scratch.  His was "humming or chattering" to beat the 
band.  In this case, a series of on-off voltages applied to the 
solenoid (exercising it) finally got it to seat properly.  These things 
are sealed and you don't want to tear into it for sure.   So "exercise" 
it and maybe this well help also.

YMMV

Tnx es 73 de W4MIL
Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: ehertz at tcaf.org
To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 3:11 PM
Subject: [Boatanchors] Station Set up follow up questions

   Ok, everyone. Thanks a ton for the suggestions on the TR-change over 
relay
situation. I now have my 51J4 and my CE100V all wired up! When I key 
the 100V,
the antenna relay fires and the J4 mutes! Things are getting very 
exciting now!

So, a few follow up Q's.
1. When the TR Relay (a dow 115vac relay) is in transmit mode (coil 
energized),
there is a distinct 60Hz hum coming from it. I am sure it is amplified 
by the
wooden board it is mounted on and the wall that the board is in turn, 
mounted
on.  I was wondering if I could reduce that hum by putting a rectifier 
in place?
I am not sure if I would need a smoothing cap or not, but maybe just 
the
rectifier? Can anyone tell me a) if this could alleviate the hum b) if 
it would
alleviate the hum but I would need a cap, c) if there would be a 
detrimental
effect to the relay by doing this? The total Vp-p would be higher is my
undertsanding once it is rectified/filtered? I was not thinking of 
using any
transformer at all in this process (mistake?)

2. Thinking in terms of tuning both Tx and Rx separately, I have always 
heard of
the term "talking yourself on frequency." My understanding was there is 
some way
to leave the receiver on the frequency you want to use and then tuning 
the
transmitter until you hear yourself.  This seems very logical to do. 
But how to
do this with the muting/relay stuff? Should I have some kind of 
override switch
to prevent the receiver from muting when attempting to set the 
frequency? Would
I need any RF connection between the Tx and Rx? Otherwise without any 
explicit
rf connection, the Tx would be connected to the antenna and the Rx 
would simply
have a length of coax to the TR relay but it would be unterminated as 
the open
circuit leg of the TR relay. But perhaps that would be enough to get 
some signal
in?

Thanks again in advance!
Eugene





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