The drill spin may clear a lightly clogged optical encoder, or they simply told you wrong as to what kind is in there.  Confusion abounds concerning these things. 

Hope it continues to work for you, saving money is always a good thing IMO.


73

?


It is the 6146's that require the neutralizing, so that's not going to work.

Perhaps an explanation of moment angle and transfer of energy is in order. 

If you are strapped firmly into the seat of a sled traveling at 60 mph and that sled should hit an immovable object head on, the sled will certainly stop its forward travel, but YOU will be subjected to an absolutely crushing G-force. 

The tube, still installed in the amp, is mechanically connected to the total mass of the amplifier. 

When (not if, but when) the package handlers subject the package to excessive G forces by tossing said package, it is the moment when the package comes to a sudden stop that the momentum of the package gets transferred to smaller masses inside the package. 

The innards of the tube, supported on rather spindly connections, can and will get slammed by the G forces. 


73

The second row indicates things like manufacturing facility, or date of manufacture, or the particular die used in manufacture, or all three. 

These are typically propietary coded numbers that reference data known to the manufacturer and of no real use to the repair technician. 

Letters listed immediately after the actual part number, however, can be important to us. 

For example, if you were to encounter a part number such as "2SC2785A" or any other letter immediately following the part number on the same line, it indicates a newer design that may not be replaceable by a transistor that does not have the suffix letter.  It is generally fine to replace a transistor with a LOWER suffix letter with one with a higher suffix, though.  For example, a transistor found that may have the A suffix can replace one that has no suffix, or perhaps one that has a C suffix can replace a transistor that has no suffix or A or B suffix.  The C suffix, though should not be used to replace one with D or higher. 


73

..In which case its no harm nor foul to have tried the drill, which I also have used with both optical and the newer and cheaper point-contact encoders with quite a bit of success. 

If the drill kills it, you likely would have to replace the encoder anyway. 

These devices are still often misunderstood, I've encountered *many* hams and service technicians who assume that all of them are Optical Encoders. 

The reality is that, the newer the device, the more likely that the Encoder is a simple point-contact device, which, of course, can suffer from the same sort of problems found with any switch that does not handle current high enough to provide a cleaning action. 

If the Encoder is indeed of the Optical type, it can be troubleshot using the O'scope to determine if the problem isn't a simple calibration procedure, adjusting the tiny variable cap inside the encoder to restore X and Y to even.  This rather common problem is often the case when freezing occurs intermittently. 

I have found that it is worth looking up the part numbers found on the actual Encoder itself in order to determine which type you have presenting.  If it is a point-contact type, rotating the control shaft via the motorized drill can and does restore proper operation, presumably via the mechanical wiping action such provides.  Very few callbacks experienced from this trick.  Of course, in the case of callback, no more attempts to find the more economical cure, that encoder gets replaced at that point. 

The word of caution about using the hand drill to rotate the shaft is in order, though will likely be ignored by the heavy-handed and stiff-brained.  The object here is not to drill hole, nor is to attempt to *grind* anything.  Use of a drill with a speed-control trigger is highly advised, along with the constraint of common sense and mechanical wisdom when rotating that shaft.  Stay ON AXIS with the shaft.  Don't rev that drill to higher RPMs, keep it around the 200RPM rate or thereabouts.  And more is not better.  If after ten to twenty seconds of rotation, things don't improve, STOP with the drill, as this is a good indication that you are not dealing with point-contact encoder problem. 


73

Blame whomever is responsible for not educating as to the basics of Supply and Demand for your dilemma. 

If you can get by your base assumptions and spend some time investigating some of the ways to obtain your amateur radio equipment frugally, you might not get what you want but you just might find that you can indeed get what you need. 

And - not being able to afford the latest and greatest gear is one sure way to LEARN a lot about this wonderful hobby, which will translate to being able to better APPRECIATE the more expensive pieces of gear and what they may bring that add to your operating pleasure. 


73

Bad logic based on a single datapoint. 

Keep shipping 'em that way and find out empirically what will happen. 

It won't be good.


73

If you bed has stake holes, consider the Stake Mount and ball. 

With that, no holes are drilled in the bed, an added attraction IMO. 

You could also experiment by moving it to other stake holes rather easily, find out about the patterns you've been told about here.


73

Your sig will still be vertically polarized with tilted antenna base, so no worry there. 

Bookmarked Immediately.

Here's hoping the thing grows and grows well.

Thanks,

es 73

Look for this part by generic terms and not part number. 


"8V miniature leaded fuse lamp" etc. will bring up lamps that will work in just about any decent electronics supply house catalog.

Here's one, found online quickly: 

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/25-450


73

What type of cap is the original C511? 

Replace with same type, new value, same or better voltage rating. 


73

There are right abgle mounts made that are smaller than the good old ball mount design.  IMO you should use the ball mount.  Ball mount with spring is even better.  Much sturdier. 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=3-8-x-24-Right-Angle-Antenna-Stud-Mount-CB-Ham-Radio-

While the angle mounts designed for clamping to truck mirrors can be adapted to the side of pickup truck bed, using the same four bolts as the clamp, the moment angle of the 102" whip on a moving vehicle can wear and tear over time.  But is possible. 

There are steel angle mounts available for use on side of truck, or one can be fabricated to suit as well. 

One nice thing about using the ball mount is that you can rather easily remove the whip by unscrewing from ball, can also quite easily put something shorter in its place, such as the loaded fiberglass single band sticks as well. 

Attempts to fabricate your own mount can be done, but would likely have to incorporate use of machine shop techniques and Delrin or Nylon to fabricate proper hard insulated bushings.  Not advisable for someone trying to utilize inner tube rubber there, though, and certainly not affordable to go that route when the ball mount design currently available is inexpensive, time proven for decades and easy to make work right. 

73

The rig uses one PL tone generator that is fed to two different circuits. 

Looks like, for some reason, the PL tone is getting to the right place in the 2 meter circuit, but something is stopping the show at the 70cm circuit. 

This could be anything from a dirty internal adjustment pot to a bad connection to a bad ground at the board screws or possibly a bad component. 

Service Manual, Schematic, signal trace.  Oscilloscope handy but not essential.


73

The vertical antenna is omnidirectional, but its signal is vertically polarized, which makes it difficult to communicate using the ground wave with horizontally polarized signals, no matter what direction they are received from. 

Omnidirectional refers to the pattern around feedpoint of the antenna. 

Polarization refers to whether the Electric portion of the electromagnetic wave is Vertical as referenced to the plane of the Earth, or horizontal. 

Two different terms that mean two entirely different things. 


73