[Elecraft] Alignment And Such

[Tom Hammond]

Dwayne:

You should'a called me pal!

>Thanks all for the helpful suggestions. I scrunched the turns on T5 
>together a little bit and that did bring the voltage up well high enough 
>at R30 to get the 6.0v required. However the turns are now clearly not 
>covering 80% of the core and I am not sure if this is a good idea or a bad 
>idea. So I am pondering adding one more turn to it instead.

It's a wash... either way will work. No benefit to one over the other.

>I continued on to the next step which had me measure the voltage at the 
>left side of R30 (same place) while turning the VFO knob to various 
>frequencies. I did this and almost all of the values where 8.147 or in 
>that area. then I noticed that I didn't hear the relays clicking as I 
>turned the VFO knob, then I noticed that they didn't change over unless I 
>used the band buttons to change for instance up to the 40m band to get to 
>the 7000 and 7300 range. So I repeated the test using the band buttons to 
>make the bulk of the movement then the VFO Knob to zero in on the 
>frequency. Doing it this way the relays did switch over and the Voltage 
>measurements where DIFFERENT! Ok so what dose this mean?

You are expected to use the BAND+/- buttons to change bands!!!!! If you 
attempt to change bands by merely cranking on the VFO knob, you WILL NOT 
SUCCEED! And the PLL voltages will go way out of whack (an old technical 
term for... well, way out of whack!).

>My first question is, should I just turn the VFO knob to get to the 
>frequencies or should I use the band buttons. (causing the relays to click 
>over.)

ALWAYS USE BUTTONS TO CHANGE BANDS

Now, you'll have fun, selecting the correct band and moving the VFO back 
INTO that band.

>If the former then what band should I have the radio set at to begin with.

Pick one band that you haven't screwed up and use it as your starting 
point. Know that you go UP in frequency each time you step the BAND+ 
button, so you can step to each succeedingly higher band and crank on the 
VFO until the frequency gets back into the band.

>Should I set the radio to the 40m band using the band change buttons then 
>tune down (using the VFO knob) to 3500 and start testing the values from 
>there? or should I move to the 80m band (using the band buttons) then 
>using the VFO knob tune across the frequencies and test them.

See above. Surely, you have at least one band which you've not managed to 
get the VFO out of band. Use it as your starting point and then go from there.

>My second question is; Is this normal operation at this stage of the 
>build? Or have I goofed something else up?

It's normal in ANY stage of the build!

>My final question (for today) is; could the high voltages measured during 
>this test be a side effect from scrunching the turns on T5 together 
>tighter to get the voltage higher at the left side of R30? if so should I 
>use a different method? all capacitors and the slug tuned shielded 
>inductor (suggested problems in the manual) are verified to be the correct 
>values (I didn't measure them I just made sure that the label was the one 
>it was supposed to be).

NO! They're telling you that you've turned the VFO so far out of range that 
the PLL can no longer cope and it's setting at it's maximum voltage. It'll 
return as soon as you get the VFO back into range on each band.

73,

Tom   N0SS