[Collins] 32S-1 band oscillator -- fixed, thanks

[Al Parker]

Hi everyone,
	Many thanks for the responses, some were "off list", some on-list were 
later followed up privately.  Jerry J & Ed K hit it on the head(s) 
"Cathode bypass and current path are critical to oscillator gain."
	After all I'd checked out, the only things left were the screen and 
cathode bypass capacitors to check, and that required some 
desolder/solder work.  I decided to do things one at a time so we would 
know just what it was.
	Russ D said that these things are 50 yrs old, we gotta suspect 
capacitors.  I have found a few "real" micas that are bad, and maybe a 
cupla disc ceramics in the past 5 yrs or so, so age is getting to be a 
problem for all of us ;-)
	It was the cathode cap, not really a failure, but it had moved a bit 
high, from 0.01 to 0.015 mfd.  I was using a handheld meter, and suspect 
it's accuracy, so I checked several new ones and found 0.008 to 0.012, 
so I selected one close to 0.10.  That did the job, good oscillation on 
15 & 10m with several different xtals that hadn't worked before.
	The "bad" cap was 50% high in value, reducing the oscillator gain I 
guess, tho' I'd expect that the Xc at that frequency would so low that 
it wouldn't make much difference if the cap was that much higher.  Shows 
how little I know of the process.  The capacitor, a disc ceramic, showed 
100's of megohms resistance at 500vdc on the megger.  Not what you'd 
expect to cause a problem, but that's all that was changed and we're 
back in operation.
	Thanks again to all who lended a hand, this is a great hobby with great 
people.
73,
Al, W8UT
www.boatanchors.org
www.hammarlund.info

"There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much
worth doing as simply messing about in boats"
Ratty, to Mole