[Elecraft] a handy tool I've been meaning to post about...

[Tom Hammond]

At 11:42 PM 11/9/03, Nate Lewis wrote:
>The trimmer I've been using for capacitors and coils lately is a nylon 
>tool with a metal bit that I got from Hamtronics for $3: it's "A2 tuning 
>tool" at http://www.hamtronics.com/accys.htm#tools - it's actually a 
>Sprague-Goodman GTT-5G.  I'm sure I should be lusting after some sexy 
>ceramic trimmers or something, but this does the job just fine, and the 
>price is right.

A WORD TO THE WISE for those who might have purchased the set of ceramic 
adjusting tools from Moresex... just yesterday, I BROKE the top off my most 
useful ceramic tuning tool when attempting to adjust one of the caps in my 
KFL1-4 4-band module for my K1.

Apparently the caps tend to LOCK in place after a period of time where 
they've not been cranked upon. The tip of the tuning tool broke all too 
easily!!!

After that sobering experience, I took a regular (metal blade) screwdriver 
and LOOSENED all (the rest) of the caps first, before attempting to make 
adjustments on them with another ceramic tool, which them performed flawlessly.

LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ALL OF US WHO LAID OUT GOOD $$$ FOR THE MORESEX 
CERAMIC TUNING TOOLS...!

73,

Tom   N0SS...  still mumbling incoherently in his beer.