Ed
The relay appears to be grounded to the mic jack.
The added relay clicks when main switch is moved from stand-by to
phone or to CW position.
The function switch contacts on TX does not appear to be burned.
There is also a on/off switch? added to front panel that appears to be
wired to relay , however, tt has no affect in eather position.
It gets proper grid current but will not load.
It gets no sound in tune position, should a signal be heard in RX set
to same freq, as TX ?
When I first blew fuse due to improper loading, is there a possibility
I also blew a tube that affects ability to load the TX ?
Thanks, Ed, for assisting me with my problems.
Edward



On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 02:20:44 GMT, Edward Knobloch
wrote:

Hi, Edward

It could be that someone changed the mic jack to a single-
conductor type, in order to use
a favorite non-push to talk mic he had on hand.
He could then use the transmitter's mode switch
to go from standby to transmit on a.m.,
as if the PTT relay mod was never done.
This would be easily reversed, should he want to go
back to push to talk - no need for him to remove the relay.

Look at the wiring near the mic jack.
Is there a wire which originated
at the PTT relay coil terminated near the mic jack?
It should be shorted to ground
so the PTT relay will be pulled in on a.m. mode.

The connection for the external antenna relay coil is the small
2 pin ceramic socket right above the a.c. power cord,
at the back of the rig. It looks like a crystal socket
for type HC-6/U crystals.

I referred you to the Ranger II manual because I know it spells
out the push to talk mod. The Ranger II is very similar
to the Ranger, it merely adds another multiplier tube to reach
the 6 meter band, and deletes the old 11 meter band.
(The Ranger II also uses different modulator tubes).

You should go over the manual's tuning procedure carefully.
It is easy to damage the final if you transmit too
long without having the final dipped. It's also possible
to damage the final with too much grid drive.

Look over the mode switch carefully. Are any parts of the
switch damaged? It could be that the previous owner added
the relay to substitute for burned out contacts on the mode
switch (not very likely, though).

73,
Ed Knobloch


Edward wrote:
Thanks, Ed-
I should have told you it is a Ranger I.
The mic connection on chassis has only one center input. Base on this
it is not a PPT relay per your explanation of requiring two
connections. I also have no ac terminals on back of set for any relay.
The relay does look like it is a double-pole double- throw.
This set apparently has a lot of other mods based on tracing some of
the wiring when I replaced all the caps.
When I first tried to load into a 5o watt light bulb, it blew the
fuse. It has been over 20 years since I loaded a tube transmitter. hi
hi I changes fuse and tried again. It does not seem to load. The
relay does click when I change from stand-by to fone or to cw.
I used my key and sent some code and can hear faint clean cw signals
on my Sony Sw RX set when tuned to the sending freq.
There is no sound when I put on tune position during tune up.

Does any of this give you any clews as to where I should look for the
problem.
I should also point out the relay and meter sometime do absolutely
nothing. I suspect have a short somewhere ??
Ed

Hi, Edward

OK, it sounds like you are making progress on figuring out
the built-in push to talk relay. I'm a little surprised
that the relay opens in "stand-by" position of the mode switch.
The standard way they wire the push to talk relay coil
is to get the d.c. voltage for the coil from the fixed 300V d.c.
supply in the transmitter (through a dropping resistor
to get the right voltage). The relay should normally
have its coil supply voltage present on one side of the coil
whenever the TX is on. Why don't you trace down where the guy
supplied the d.c. for the relay coil? Does the relay
coil have about 150 V d.c. across it when turned on?

The "tune" position of the Ranger is used to set up the proper
grid drive. You should then dip the final plate current in "phone"
position using the final tune knob.

Yes, you should hear the signal in your receiver
when you are in "tune" mode (with rcvr antenna near the Ranger).
It may be that the Ranger's VFO
calibration is not quite right, and you are not putting out a signal
at the frequency indicated by the dial. That is easily fixed.

You say that you are getting proper grid drive (around 2 mA
on a 0 to 10 ma "grid" meter scale), but the TX doesn't load.
Do you mean that the final plate current stays high
and doesn't vary when you adjust
the final tune knob, or are you now getting no final plate current
at all?

If no final plate current in a.m. or c.w. mode,
you may have burnt open the 30K Ohm
power resistor that connects between the 6146 screen (pin 3)
and the high voltage supply. If you transmitted with no antenna
connected, 6146 screen current could have been excessive, causing
that 30K resistor to open.

Have you got the Ranger operating manual?
You really need to carefully follow the manual procedure
for tuning to avoid potentialy harming the rig.

Also, you should download a copy of the Ranger II manual,
where it spells out Johnson's recommended push to talk relay
circuit (pages 18 and 19 of the Ranger II manual).

You say that someone added an on/off switch to the front panel,
associated with the internal push to talk relay.
I'm afraid you'll have to trace it out to see what his intentions
were, this isn't any sort of standard mod that I know of.
Some Rangers are used as rf and audio drivers for
high power transmitters. It may be that he added a switch
so that the Ranger could be used barefoot or as an exciter.

Have you checked out the a.c. antenna relay power jack
on the back panel? Is that controlled by the push to talk relay?

Do you have an dummy load and an rf Wattmeter?
It's best to use a dummy load until you are sure
that the transmitter is putting out power
where you want it, within the band.

73,
Ed Knobloch

Edward wrote:
Ed
The relay appears to be grounded to the mic jack.
The added relay clicks when main switch is moved from stand-by to
phone or to CW position.
The function switch contacts on TX does not appear to be burned.
There is also a on/off switch? added to front panel that appears to be
wired to relay , however, tt has no affect in eather position.
It gets proper grid current but will not load.
It gets no sound in tune position, should a signal be heard in RX set
to same freq, as TX ?
When I first blew fuse due to improper loading, is there a possibility
I also blew a tube that affects ability to load the TX ?
Thanks, Ed, for assisting me with my problems.
Edward