[Heathkit] Mohican, thanks all. . .

[Philip Atchley]

Hi,

Today I received the bushing for the antenna trimmer shaft in the mail 
(thank you Gerry) and got it installed in the set.

First, though I've thanked them directly, I would like to take this 
opportunity to thank everyone who helped me with this project.  Some 
provided parts or scans of needed manual pages, others provided good 
advice.

I'd already aligned the radio before the bushing arrived.  Not a perfect 
alignment.  One of those cases where if you align it at the specified 
points (each end of the dial) the center of the dial is off some.  Since 
I didn't want to go through and "knife edge" the tuning capacitor etc I 
did the best I could. Calibration is the worst in the center of the 
bands.  But from what I remember about the one I built back in the 60's, 
this was common.  Also, it is very difficult to get the top band aligned 
as tuning the mixer etc pulls the oscillator.  So, you have to tweak it 
with one hand on the tuning control. Even so, the set plays quite 
nicely.

A few "quirks" I've noticed in the set or problems I ran into while 
working on it.

1.  On the higher frequencies, signal strength (AGC presumed) will 
"pull" the signal some.  Not noticeable on fairly steady signals.  But a 
very strong signal with fades will noticeably drift back and forth with 
signal strength.

2.  There is some backlash in the main tuning.  It's well lubricated and 
free turning and doesn't seem to be much I can do about it.

3.  The 'replacement' speaker that I got from the shop where I work was 
the correct size, impedance and mounting centers.  But it's magnet is a 
1/2 inch deeper and bigger square than the original.  This required me 
to mount the speaker, working through the battery compartment AFTER the 
chassis was in the cabinet.  Otherwise the IF transformer wouldn't clear 
the magnet while inserting the chassis.  Once in place there isn't any 
problem. I suspect this speaker may have a little fuller sound than the 
original did.

4.  The bandswitch was EXTREMELY stiff to turn (I had to put an 
oversized knob on it while working on it).  This turned out to be 
located where the shaft passes through the threaded front bushing of the 
switch (not the front panel bushing).  As I didn't wish to disassemble 
this switch if I didn't need to, I put a paper towel under the shaft to 
catch the drips and kept applying some light sewing machine oil to the 
shaft.  Eventually it soaked in enough that rotating the shaft freed it 
up nicely.

Is it a bandcruising DX Machine on the order of an SP-600 receiver or 
similar?  NO!  But then I wouldn't expect it to be either.  It's a nice 
little solid state, tabletop radio with a LOT of nostalgia value and a 
modest amount of performance.

73 de Phil,  KO6BB
991 Different NDB's heard to date.

http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
Merced, Central California, 37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh 



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