Colin and Don,

Thank you for your suggestions, however in my case I don't think they
will apply...

Unfortunately, a grid dipper is one item I do not own, so I am flying
blindly in that respect. To determine the oscillator frequency, I have
been tuning an Icom IC745 455 kHz above the target frequency and
listening for the S 20R's oscillator. As for your otber suggestions:
1. I have not been able to find any undocumented fixed caps in the
circuit. (Unless one was hidden inside the coil.....)
2. I checked the padder with a capacitor checker and it seemed to
adjust OK.
3. The coils on this receiver, unlike those on an S-40, are not
adjustable.
4. The coil does not "appear" to have been molested
5. Since there are no slugs, and no place for slugs, that wouldn't be
the case.

Since the other bands line up fine, I think the procedure I am
following should be OK.

I can't imagine something like that having slipped through from the
factory, but I suppose anything is possible...fortunatly I do have a
junker set to get the coil from, I just wanted to see if there was
anything I overlooked before removing the whole oscillator coil
sub-assemblies (probably would swap the entire units rather than take
them apart to replace one coil....)

Forgive me for questioning you, but something does not seem right. Have you
checked the good S-20R to make sure that its oscillator is 455 kHz above the
received frequency and not below?

I assume the trimmers are mica. You can roughly check the capacitance by how
tight the plates are meshed. Are the capacitors in both radios about the
same?

I still think you are aligned to the image and the method you are using is
confusing you.

Try this. Take your good S-20R and set if for say 10 MHz (wwv is good).
Then, listen to the oscillator. Assume that is 10.455 MHz. Now, take your
bad S-20R and set the dial to 10 MHz. Then, set your Icom to 10.455 and
adjust the capacitor until you hear the oscillator on your Icom. It should
be working.

Get a cheap grid dip meter - they are quite handy, even though you have
figured out a good workaround.

Colin K7FM

Just a thought about something simple you may have overlooked. Do the
end index marks on the dial line up with the extreme travel limits of
the variable cap? It might be off a little and the other bands might
have been aligned to the error where as band 3 might have less adj in
it. Mike KF6KXG

Since I have had the receiver in and out of the cabinet numerous times,
and since I have to turn the receiver chassis upside down I have to
remove the dials to keep from damaging them, I have had many
opportunities to make sure that the index marks line up correctly.

But thank you, it is a good thought....

"Forgive me for questioning you, but something does not seem right.
Have you
checked the good S-20R to make sure that its oscillator is 455 kHz
above the
received frequency and not below? "

"Try this. Take your good S-20R and set if for say 10 MHz (wwv is
good).
Then, listen to the oscillator. Assume that is 10.455 MHz. Now, take
your
bad S-20R and set the dial to 10 MHz. Then, set your Icom to 10.455
and
adjust the capacitor until you hear the oscillator on your Icom. It
should
be working."

Did that. I wanted to verify that the oscillator operated above the
received frequency on band 3. (It does, same as on bands 1 and 2. It
operates at 455 kHz below received frequency on band 4).

In fact, I can align to the image and get it to line up at 7 MHz. Of
course, when I do that, the mixer and RF stages no longer track very
well, and it would be really annoying to have to turn the receiver on
its side and readjust those trimmers as you travel down the band. If I
align the correct way, the mixer and RF stages track (sorta)...better
than if I align on the image, but still not quite right (would make
sense if the oscillator is not tracking right....mixer and RF are
probably tracking fine....just not keeping in step with the
oscillator).

BTW...no need for forgiveness....without questioning it'd be danged
hard to figure out what's going on here....which is why I'm here to
begin with.