Saturday, April 21, 2012 — I had a break in the home action and thought I would quickly check out a 1960s VFO accessory I picked up at a recent hamfest. The seller is a fellow ham whom I’ve known for years, and he had this same unit for sale last hamfest season. I wanted it then but figured he would sell it before I had the cash-in-hand.
When I saw he still had it for sale, I snapped it up. It’s a fairly clean (not mint) example of this manufacturer’s VFO, and perfect for a Novice rig I own. He’s told me for months the story of him checking it out and testing it, and making a CW contact with just the VFO as the transmitter, QRP style.
Unfortunately, when I plugged the unit in and turned it on, nothing! Zip! Zero! Nada. GRRR!
Removing the unit from the case revealed a fuse holder that had been jumpered in place and a 6BA7 tube with a broken envelope. The tube filaments are wired in parallel, so why none of the tube lit escapes me … the dial lamp, which is powered by the 6.3 v secondary, did not light either.
My first suspect is that fuse holder that was haywired in place. The snap in fuse holder has bare clips to hold the fuse, and the whole thing is flopping around about 1/8 inch from the chassis — possible short, which might blow the fuse. Other than that, I’m thinking the rectifier diodes may be shot, or the transformer. This is turning into a “project” I don’t need! I wanted to use the damn thing, not repair it!
I don’t have time today to mess with it or take voltage measurements, but I can do that before the new tube arrives (if I have time then). The VFO is not complicated, but its sure getting aggravating. Sheesh!
I hope I see my ham friend and he asks about the VFO. I’m going to go easy on him, but one question I want to have answered is simply “During which decade did you last operate this VFO?” I’m not sure it was anytime this century!!
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