Mike Andrews wrote:
Chuck Harris wrote:

[snip really, really good stuff]


OK, that is the official factory sanctioned alignment instruction for the
VFO. Before you do any of it, check with a freq. counter to see what the 2nd VFO
frequencies are at 1000KHz, and 0000KHz. If you are lucky, they will both be
off by the same amount in the the same direction. If this is true, you just
need to slip the capacitor's shaft coupling. Don't go nuts on tightening the
set screw, it only needs to be snug.


Just out of curiosity, have you tried the BFO check position to see if your
BFO tuning knob is really at zero when its pointer shows zero? The BFO can
tune +/-15KHz.


Thanks _very_ much. Now I have a handle on getting my 6217E tweaked back
into shape. It would be really good if I could come by a set of the cables
for all the finicky little modules.

Mine's just Really Deaf over most bands,

To check its sensitivity, put the receiver preselector in the "WB" position.
In that position, all frequencies are exactly the same. There is no band
switching in a 6217E. The MHz dial just tunes a VFO that is used for both
the first conversion, and then is mixed down to do the second conversion too.
The MHz dial's VFO's imprecision gets exactly cancelled out do to this trick.

The answer to your sensitivity problem is very probably a pair of burned out
germanium transistors in the RF preamp unit. This happens all the time to this
receiver. Try and get the original type, NTE's replacement works, but it isn't
quite as sensitive. It MUST be a germanium!

The receiver has a gas discharge tube and a fuse in the antenna circuit, but
the RF transistors are so sensitive that they pop anyway.

-Chuck