[Boatanchors] A Gonset Communicator Question (or two)

[Bry Carling]

I would not recommend trying to sub a signal gen for the crystal. To get the Communicator on 2m AM your best bet is to be sure and have an FT243 crystal for 8025 kHz on hand. They are pretty commonly available.

We have them available as well as other nearby frequencies commonly used for 2m AM, but that is the most popular spot, being 144.450 MHz

73 - Bry Carling, AF4K Crystals.

> To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> From: ko6bb1 at gmail.com
> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 21:53:25 +0000
> Subject: [Boatanchors] A Gonset Communicator Question (or two)
> 
> Hi All,
> Saturday morning at the Ham Coffee Klatch at the local mall one of my 
> local ham buddies asked a favor of me.  He has a 2M Gonset Communicator 
> (II?) that was given to him by an old friend (now an SK).  The rig had 
> been modified/retuned to the Aircraft AM band (not sure why, the owner 
> may have been a pilot, as is my ham friend).
> 
> Any-whoo, knowing that I like working on old stuff, although I can't 
> handle large/heavy BA's so easily now, he asked if I'd be willing to 
> check it out and then re-tune it back to 2M.  He would like to present 
> it to the son of his old friend.
> 
> I told him I'd be willing to give it my best shot, working it in between 
> other projects as I'm able. . .
> 
> I've never seen a Gonset in real life, but the schematic looks like a 
> fairly straight forward rig, Xtal controlled and multiplied up to 2M.  
> Since it has sat for a long time I suspect it may need a few capacitors 
> etc, I'd have to order those.
> 
> He DID say to try to reform them first, which it looks like will be the 
> MAIDEN VOYAGE of my brand new 10Amp Isolated Variac :) While reforming I 
> will probably tack a couple 1N4007 diodes across the 6X4 rectifiers as 
> they wouldn't come to life until the heaters got hot enough to emit them 
> funky little electrons.
> **********************
> 
> Now for the questions.
> 1.  I've not worked on one of these rigs before, are there any "gotchas" 
> or other things I need to look out for?
> 
> 2.  It's NOT likely that a 2M Xtal will come with the rig.  Do you think 
> that driving the Xtal input from one of my Signal Generators (Overhauled 
> Heathkit LG-1 OR Leader LSG-17) will provide sufficient drive to get the 
> critter up to the point where I can align the Xmitter stages?
> 
> -- 
> 73 From "The Beaconeer's Lair"
> Phil, KO6BB
> http://www.qsl.net/ko6bb/  (Web Page)
> 
> HF/LF RADIOS:
> Grundigs: S-350 (~2006), G6 (2011) & S450DLX (2014).
> HOMEBREW: 7 Tube+Rect 1v3 Regenerative RX for LF (built 2015)
> Icom:     IC-735 Transceiver (~1990).
> Icom:     R-75, Cascaded 250/125Hz CW-Filt, Panadapter. (~2009)
> Icom:     IC-7200 Transceiver (~2015).
> R-Shack:  DX-380 digital portable (~1990).
> SDR:      Softrock Ensemble II LF (built from a kit 2015).
> Zenith:   Royal-7000 Transoceanic Portable (~1968).
> 
> ACC:   HOMEBREW  LF-MF Pre-Amp, MFJ-993B HF Auto-Tuner.
>         HOMEBREW  4 Port Multicoupler, Feeds Antenna to 4 RX's.
>         HOMEBREW  8 Hz Audio Filter.
>         Timewave  DSP-599zx Audio Filter.
>         Behringer 1202fx Audio Mixer (for mixing/routing audio).
> 
> ANTENNAS: 88 foot Long Ladder-line fed dipole, 35 feet AGL for MW/SW.
>            Active Mini-Whip, 36 Feet AGL for LF/MW/SW.
>            37 foot "Low Noise Vertical", 11 feet AGL for LF/MW/SW.
> 
> Merced, Central California, 37, 18, 37N   120, 30, 6W CM97rh
> 
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