[Clegg] Zeus questions

[km1h]

Todd, I havent done much at all on 2M, seems that most of the activity is 
early on weekends when Id rather stay in bed! But no arcing there either.

I do remember some arcing when I first got it but I believe that was just RF 
crystalized solder joints in the cage.

My antenna is a modified Crashcrap Boomer, stretched the boom 6" and added 2 
elements. It did wonders for the pattern as well as maximize gain for the 
length. Something I did on YO many years ago. The antenna is at 60' but Ive 
a negative horizon from the hilltop here. With the 6M NCL2000 on SSB I can 
work down into MD/VA, and around thru the arc up to Toronto just about 
anytime. Location Location Location!!

For general ragchewing I use the 75/80/160M inverted V which loads OK.

The clipper was set with several on the air reports, then left alone. There 
are some audio mods out there but I havent dug into them yet. Id prefer to 
get the "Real AM" bandwidth sound that I have on HF with the 32V2/75A4 
setup.

The driver runs right at the edge, at least mine had dull red plates. I cut 
down on the voltage a bit after having a few go soft. A bit pricey to 
replace also.

Going to regulated DC on the VFO filaments really stabilized things, Ive 
made many contacts down with the SSB group with many not even realizing it 
was AM. Probably a lot better than the original Venus, I remember those 
drifters when new!

I'll probably get back on soon. Just have to rebuild the free wheeling 
rotator and put on new coax!

Carl





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Todd, KA1KAQ" <ka1kaq at gmail.com>
To: "km1h" <km1h at jeremy.mv.com>
Cc: <clegg at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Clegg] Zeus questions


> On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 14:17:20 -0500, km1h <km1h at jeremy.mv.com> wrote:
>> Todd, Ive had a Zeus/Interceptor on 6 AM for years.
>>
>> Never had arcing problems even into 3:1 VSWR, dont know what version I 
>> have.
>>
>> I tested over 30 4x150A thru 4CX250 and 120-130W is max on 6M. and 95-105 
>> on
>> 2M.
>> I load a bit heavy which seems to improve the already weak modulation.
>> Havent made any mods except to get rid of the ballast tube.
>>
>> Havent been very active lately but I worked the Albany group nightly as 
>> well
>> as all over CT, RI, VT, MA, etc.from about 25m NW of Boston.
>> Most were only running 2-10W but my location and antenna helped a ton. 
>> This
>> was all using the Interceptor on receive.
>
> Thanks for the remarks, Carl -
>
> I should've added that 6 seemed to load up pretty clean, it was 2 that
> caused arcing. This into a large broadcast dummy load.
>
> More and more I'm thinking that the PA might be soft, simply because
> everything else seems to tune to spec, I even have to cut back on the
> drive for tuning 6. Only after final tuning in the 'operate'  do I
> find that, despite following the tuning instructions to the letter, do
> I see a realtively low output. By your figures, I'm seeing about half
> of what I should see. I'd be curious to know how you deal with the
> modulation and clipper set up, too. Seems almost counter-intuitive.
> Maybe I'm reading it wrong.
>
> Any suggestions on a good antenna? I was thinking of one of those 6
> meter Ringos for listening, with a decent yagi for actual ragchewing.
> Wire dipole works okay on the Venus for nearby SSB stuff, but I doubt
> it would cut it for AM work. Albany is only a couple hours or so SW of
> me as the crow flies, so it shouldn't be all that difficult to hear
> them. Boston might be another story, though.
>
> The only mod to the transmitter set up appears to be the PTT circuit
> added. Interceptor was another story, though. Two holes bored into the
> back the size of a dime or larger, one to replace the RCA speaker jack
> with an antique 1/4" jack (the kind where the front connector goes
> through the panel and threads into the jack in back) with oversized
> washers, the other was holding one of those jacks used on the old WWII
> beacon sets. And it wasn't even hooked to anything! Fortunately I had
> a matching RCA jack and a thin, wide washer that was even alodined the
> same color as the chassis. Mod reversal came out looking pretty good
> for the speaker, but there's still a gaping hole where the unused
> connector was.
>
> I'm pretty excited to get these things working, now I can't wait to
> get them on the air for a try out. Need to get an antenna up first.
>
> 73, Todd  KA1KAQ
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