[Heathkit] VF-1 minor annoyance...

[Mike Hyder -N4NT-]

Sometimes the wiper on the rotor of a variable capacitor becomes dirty and
does not make consistently good contact.  I'd try a good contact cleaner on
it and follow up with some lubricant.

Hope this helps.  73, Mike N4NT

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenneth G. Gordon" <keng@moscow.com>
To: <heathkit@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2002 2:01 PM
Subject: [Heathkit] VF-1 minor annoyance...


> I have an excellent VF-1 (the later model with the steel chassis, ceramic
> sockets, and ceramic bandswitch), which has an annoying characteristic
> in which it jumps frequency a few cycles on a random basis. I have
> replaced both the VR tube and the oscillator tube several times and it
still
> occurs. Over the years, I have replaced nearly every resistor and cap
> (except the tuning cap) in it with modern ones as they drifted out of
spec.
> Calibration is about as good as I have seen, and there is no drift or
chirp
> on any of the bands I use ( I don't use it on 10...yet). I have checked
all
> components for looseness, including the slugs, and nothing is loose
> anymore.
>
> Yet I still get the jump whether I am using the 160 meter or 40 meter
> output.
>
> Anyone have a similar experience? If so, what did you do to fix it?
>
> The VF-1 I used with my modified DX-35 ("economy"power supply
> with a heavy enough power transformer, SS rectifiers, decent meter, and
> got rid of that idiot series osc/buffer across the HV idea), to drive a
BC-
> 610 for RTTY in the 1960s never did this...
>
> Ken Gordon W7EKB