[Boatanchors] AR 88 Discussions

[Bry Carling]

I love them but always seem super expensive.

Best regards - Bry Carling



> On Feb 2, 2014, at 5:57 PM, Mark Johnson <mvjohn at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> 
> Team,
> 
> Nice to see all the AR 88 discussion albeit mostly about bulk and weight. The weight of these things has stopped me from both buying and selling on a few occasions! They are very nice though!
> 
> I have a couple of units here; an LF and an F model,  and I'm currently working on the F model. I'd appreciate some feedback re: IF alignment and RF alignment. 
> 
> After doing a lot of repairs and cleanup, along with a complete disassembly of the gear drive to clean up a half century of hardened grease, I'm now doing the alignment. 
> 
> In particular for the IF, I'm following a sweep alignment as per an article I found written by a Henry Rogers, WA7YBS, Western Historic Radio Society. 
> 
> I'm finding it very tricky to get the IF patterns shown in the article and maintain IF gain. Great looking IF curves and suitable IF gain seem to be mutually exclusive. If I just peak each IF for max signal, the radio works OK, but according to what I have been reading, the IF's should be swept and I have the equipment. 
> 
> Also, is it common on these radios to experience a drop in gain when  the selectivity switch is moved from position 2 to positions 3, 4, and 5? In positions 3, 4, and 5, the crystal filter is engaged and overall gain, at least on my radio, drops. 
> 
> I did a compromise alignment where I maintained IF gain and had what I thought were suitable IF curves but when I switch in the crystal filter; moving to positions 3, 4 and 5, the drop in gain leads me to think I'm still not right yet. 
> 
> In addition after doing the RF alignment, I noticed the tracking is off about 40 khz at mid band on the top bands; band positions 4, 5 and 6. The end set up points can be brought in perfectly - with much back and forth on the tuning knob and signal generator, but at mid band, I'm off. I suspect that's an issue with the main tuning capacitor and the oscillator section. Some bending may required to get the tracking spot on. Something I'm not willing to do so I'll live with the dial inaccuracy on those bands at the mid points. 
> 
> Any ideas and comments appreciated. 
> 
> Thank you. 
> 
> Mark VE3LU
> Mark V Johnson
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