[Amps] Suggestions - I broke my amp - part 2

Larry lknain at nc.rr.com
Tue Nov 16 17:43:21 PST 2010


A number of you offered suggestions a couple of weeks ago and I checked those
suggestions a couple of times. I have finally got back to trying to track down what 
is probably a silly error on my part that has broken my Clipperton-L. The mods were 
triggered by the destruction of the original parasitic suppressors. The amp was 
working - just not well in all conditions. 

I  replaced the power supply board (just an upgrade to better supply), replaced the  
plate RFC to an Ameritron AL-572 RFC along with the parasitic suppressor board, 
changed the plate bypass cap at the power supply side of the plate RFC to a 0.002uf 
value, changed the plate blocking cap to 0.002uf, changed the filament RFC to a 
bigger unit, and changed a couple of doorknobs for 160 (unrelated to the original
problem of the parasitic suppressors). I haven't gotten to 160 yet. The current effort 
is using 40. The current result is still no output

1. There is plate current (as measured by the panel meter) and there is plate voltage.

2. I don't have a HV probe but I could measure at the plate  voltage (at the plate caps) 
as the voltage was dropping after turning off the power switch and it tracked with the 
panel meter.

3. The idle current seems OK. 

4. The plate current follows keying. The plate current changes as it should as the driving 
power is increased or decreased.

5. Adjusting the output cap controls has no noticeable effect on the plate current (no dip
etc).

6. Using an ohmmeter there is continuity (short) from the output network side of the plate
blocking cap (on the cap lead) to the output connector. From the other side of the
plate blocking cap (on the cap lead) to the power supply there is continuity (short).
Thinking perhaps the new blocking cap might be bad I replaced it with a pair of 0.001uf
in parallel but still have the same result. (I remeasured the shorts after replacing the
blocking cap.)

7. The output relay is switching as it should. None of the wiring to the relay was touched
in this mod.

It has been a long time since I worked on an amp. I am sure I am overlooking something
small and silly. I was hoping one of the gurus here might have a pointer or suggestion of
something I might have missed.

Thanks

73, Larry  W6NWS


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