[EICO] Model 723 ham transmitterand my new 710-A GDO (!!)

[Ed Tanton]

Put a 100W (or even two) light bulb in series with it John. If you don't
want to solder to them, buy a couple of sockets from Home Depot. That
ought to cut the voltage down some. Are you sure it's a 5A fuse? That
sounds like 3A too many! (This said w/o looking it up.) With the 2 bulbs
in series, plug it all in (be careful-OSHA would have a hissy-fit over
this!) and if there's ANY crackling sounds, immediately cut it back off.
If not, the bulbs shoukd glow dimly, and the caps should get enough
stuff to 'form'. I have always done this with a variac, but it ought to
work this way. After several hours of this, try removing the one of the
series-load 100W bulbs. If that goes OK, wait another several hours, and
then try it with no series 'restraints'. Ought to work-if it's going to.
At each stage, listen for capacitor frying sounds. I've actually used
the sounds to determine the 'forming' voltage on a Hallicrafters
HT-18... took it up to frying and immediately backed down 30% or so at
each stage. I don't recommend that however!

Make sure you have a vacuum tube rectifier-if at all possible. I
strongly recommend against the use of silicon rectifiers in boat anchor
gear not designed with it. The operating voltages are raised by a factor
of ~ 1.4... and that's not good for close-to-tolerance parts.

I am close to putting on 40M an ALL-EICO station later this year. I have
a Space Ranger receiver, and will be using the EICO 723 tx, 722 VFO, and
the 717 keyer for a week or two. (The '723 is my 'standard' keyer,
anyway.) I'll make certain all the EICOs on the list know about it.

*** Last week I got in a new (to me) EICO 710-A GDO. Yes, an '-A. It is
identical to several of the GDOs manufactured in the 70s/80s and
'private-lebelled'. It does say right on the unit EICO 710-A... and has
an EICO manual. It was not a kit. A picture is available on my GDOs
webpage <http://www.n4xy.com/gdos.html>. Please be patient with the
loading times.

73  Ed Tanton  N4XY  <n4xy@earthlink.net>

EICO List Manager

Ed Tanton  N4XY
189 Pioneer Trail
Marietta, GA  30068-3466

website:   http://www.n4xy.com

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