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Old November 3rd 05, 02:37 AM
Thermionic
 
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Default Attention please Heathkit HW-16 owners


WDØHCO wrote in message
...
Hola Amigo's...

Biz Wichy here ( WDØHCO )

Hi Bill and Thermo

He's talking about the VFO in the RX section and to answer your question
Thermo - NO - that's not normal. I have 3 HW-16's and none have ever done
that.

So lets fix her...

First step is to switch V3 6EA8 with the Het Mixer V2 6EA8 and see if the
problem goes away. There's one chance in a million the tube is the
problem... if that's it then you really should be playing the lottery!!!

Second step - try swapping the 6EW6 V4 IF AMP with 6EW6 V1 RF AMP and see

if
the problem goes away. This one stage away from VFO/MIX but it's worth

tryin
cause it only takes a second and well who knows...

Third Step - possible cold solder joint. Give a good going over all the
joints in the that part of the circuit board. Pay particular attention to
wire "X" that connects L7. Make sure it's as short as can be and no other
wires come near it. Make sure the copper island on the board where it

lands
is clean ( i.e No Rosen crap ).

Fourth Step - check all the entrances and exits of the VFO circuit. In

this
case there is only two. Check R33 47K 1W resistor to see if its within 20%
of the 47K value. Just left up one leg and check with a VOM. This little

guy
connects the +310 VDC bus and drops it to +95 to the plate of the triode
section of the VFO 6EA6. Hook the resistor back up and check the +95

voltage
with a ANALOG VOM. Tune in a strong signal and see if it dips as you rock
the tuning knob. Next - lets check C56 cap which goes into the cathode of
the VFO MIX. If you have a cap checker - fine and dandy - if not remove

C56
and solder 2 2" 20 gauge vinyl coated wires and twist them together loosly
three times. That should be near 680 Puff. Turn on the set and see if the
problem went away. If not - put C56 back in place.

At this point - we can conclude that VFO might not be the problem. A

likely
suspect could be the BFO Circuit - V5B which uses a 12AX7. since the '16
only has one 12AX7 you can't sub unless you have a spare 12AX7 - then try
it.

The fixed freq BFO is directly mixed with the IF sig at T3. R51, C72 and

C77
could be troublemakers. The best way to check it is with a FREQ Counter.

If
you don't have one - use a good shortwave rcvr. Attach a wire antenna and
bring it near T3 and tune it to the BFO freq on 3396.4 KC. Turn on the
Shortwave Rcvr's BFO and get a good whistle. Now tune the HW-16 to a

strong
station and see if the HW-16's BFO shifts around.

Well that should be a good start. Please post what your results were.

Biz WDØHCO




Again, thanks for your helpful words. I have not found anything wrong
yet except for a bad solder on V1. I won't get into everything that I did,
but the tubes are good, C56 is good, I can't find any other bad components,
and for sure its the main VFO that is being affected. I tuned it in on
another rx. The freq shift is small, maybe 50 cycles at its worst, but thats
enough to be a problem. I tried other values for C56 and find that the shift
is less with less C and larger with more C. There is a slight voltage
variation of about 1/2 volt on the screen of V3 that can be detected when a
strong signal is present, and a change of a couple hundredths of a volt on
the cathode. I think next I will remove C56 entirely and see if the VFO is
still shifting. Will let you know what happens! Thanks.......T