[Elecraft] VCO Alignment

[MikeH]

Hello all, and thanks to those who responded to my recent message 
regarding the PLL reference oscillator test.

I no sooner resolved that issue than I ran into a more puzzling issue 
during the VCO alignment. On the initial test, I had reasonable 
voltages through the entire band (ranging from 2.066V to 7.95V). 
Several high voltages, but most were well within the range. However, 
when I tapped the band switch button to get back down to the lower 
bands, everything went haywire and has not been right since.

I ended up with voltages of 18mV at 4MHz and below. L30 became 
unresponsive. Voltages were similarly low up into about 10MHz. Then, 
above that, voltages moved up, and became very high, around 7.95, and 
again unresponsive to adjustments of L30. I could fiddle with the radio 
(band switching, powering off, then powering back on), and at times get 
back to the original readings, but I could never get the voltage down 
to 7.5V or below. In other words,  the radio is acting very strangely. 
As an aside, the band switch seems to operating incorrectly in the 
lower bands (below 10MHz), often not switching to the lower bands at 
all, sometime just not switching the the proper band (ie. the next 
lower band). I don't know if this is a cause or and effect of the 
voltage problem. I am very suspicious of one or more relays because of 
the odd band switching. And I'll just "fess up" here and admit that I 
did (inadvertently) clip the leads on several relays AFTER soldering 
them; the manual says not to trim the leads. Did I mess up relays and 
cause the voltage problem? During the Alignment and Test: Part I, the 
relays seemed to work fine, but that was before I clipped any leads.

I've check all values of components in and around L30, as directed in 
the manual. I've reheated solder joints and looked for soldering 
problems. I've verified the turns and connections on T5. So I'm 
basically at a loss.

I appreciate your suggestions.

Mike/NR7F