[Boatanchors] Crystal Etching Using Whink

[David Stinson]

Well, I left the 3500 crystal in sealed pill bottle
with fresh Whink overnight.  As before, it moved
2 KC in about 8 hours.  So it's not the air.  Perhaps
Whink is made weaker now.  At least the pill bottle
didn't waste as much as the tub.

As others have noted, different crystal dates and
makers can move different amounts with Whink.
If you're going to use it, use fresh for an hour
and see how far it moves.

Important Note:
If your crystal blank has metal deposited on it,
it's not there just as a contact point.  The deposit
can be carefully controlled to adjust the crystal
frequency.  It will be stripped very quickly by
Whink and your crystal will go up frequency
at warp speed.  Some I had would move 2-3
KC with only 2-3 seconds in the Whink.
Have your water-bath ready to stop the reaction
and determine how fast it's going to move.
Discovered this when I tried to etch a crystal
in the 75M band up to 3890.  The metal
coating started bubbling right away and I let
it go one far too long.  When I took the crystal
out and cleaned it, it was almost 4 MC!

GL OM ES 73 DE Dave AB5S



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