TenTec
[Top] [All Lists]

[TenTec] The Argonaut 509 From HELL!

To: "Ten-Tec" <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: [TenTec] The Argonaut 509 From HELL!
From: "Richard Arland" <richard.arland@verizon.net>
Reply-to: tentec@contesting.com
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 18:47:13 -0500
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
Hi Gang:

Many thanks for all the support that came in off-list. Don't worry, I have not 
given up.....yet.

Todate I have over 20 hours in on troubleshooting this rig. Here are the latest 
developments:

1. The 20M oscillator stopped oscillating while I was fine tuning it! I removed 
the coil, desoldered all the pins on the coil, redsoldered the  pins and wires, 
perfomred a continuity check. All is as it should be. I resoldered the coil and 
the 20M section took off just like "Downtown"! OK, one problem fixed.

2. 10M was still inop. I removed the 10M coil, performed the same "magic" on it 
as I did the 20M Coil, and replaced it. 10M still won't come up.

3. In an attempt to isolate the problem to one stage, I hooked the 100 MHz 
Tectronix scope to the junction of R2 (1.5K) and R1 (220 ohm) resistors on the 
emitter of Q1, the oscillator. All bands showed the fundamental frequency (T-T 
calls this the "basic frequency") except on 10 meters, which had no output. The 
oscillator will not fire up on 10M at all. I got the following P-P readings: 
80M 1.0 V, 40M 1.1 V, 20M 1.1V, 15M 1.1V, 10M 0.0V. All the waveforms looked 
nice and pretty; fine examples of sine waves.

4. I moved the scope to the output on the back of the PTO/Osc board and 
everything except 10M had an output there (T-T calls this the "injection 
frequency"). Some of the waveforms (namely the 20M output) looked a little 
"funkie" (non-sinusoidal), but the all had an output somewhere between 3.5 and 
5.0 Volts P-P. 

5. I measured the DC voltages on the pins of Q1, the oscillator: on all bands 
except 10M the voltages were: Emitter 2.03 VDC, Base 2.13 VDC & Collector- 7.45 
VDC, which were well within the parameters specified in the manual. On 10M I 
got the following DC voltages: E- 1.56 V, B- 2.2 V, C-7.56 V, indicating that 
the oscillator was not functioning. 

6. Then the multiplier transformer, T-1, started giving me fits. In an attempt 
to verify the operation of the multiplier stage and fine tune the outputs per 
the instrucitons in the manual, I set up the 15 M band and then the 80M band 
per instructions. I went to 40M, where T-1 and Q4 function as a tripler (on 80 
& 15M they function as a doubler and on 20 it is straight through without any 
frequency multiplicaiton at all), and was setting up the output for a peak on 
16.1 MHz, when Q4/T1 stopped trippling! All I could get out of the stage was 
doubling, which was NOT a good thing. 

7. At this point, I became EXTREMELY frustrated and removed the entire 
oscillator board subassembly, P/N 80233! I heated EVERY connection on the 
baord, removed T-1 and found that the bottom slug had broken, so I chipped it 
out, moved the top slug to the bottom position, and then found another slug 
that looked similar and put it into the top of T1. I then desoldered both 
wafers of S-1A  & B and cleaned up the joints and resoldered all the wafer 
connections, in the event that the problem with 10M was a cold solder joint on 
the bandswitch. I then reassembled the oscillator subassembly and PTO, powered 
the rig up and found that 10M still would not come up, and the T1 coil was 
tuneable but the results on the Injedction Frequency was not correct. I tried 
several other slugs in the top of T1 and finally found one that would allow the 
40M basice freq to triple to the required 16.1 MHz Injection Freq. 

This where I left everything. I am still not satisified with T1/Q4, as I don't 
feel confident that this stage will triple as needed, and that it could be 
erratic. Still no output on 10M, and I have done everything I can think of, and 
recomeded by Garland Jenkins at T-T, to make this oscillator take off and fly. 
To no avail. 

Does anyone have any ideas? I am rapidly running out of ides and patience. At 
his point does anyone have a 509 they are parting out and can I PLEASE get the 
83233 oscillator subassembly from you? Failing that, does anyone have a 509 
that they will sell me for parts? At this point I am about ready to procure 
another 509 that actually works properly and use this one I'm working on for 
parts. 

Help!

73 Rich K7SZ












_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>