[TenTec] Reed realy in Titan? Help/advice

[Ken Brown]

Hi Gerry,

>I see plate current but no output from the amp.
>
How are you measuring output. Maybe the amp is working and your 
indicator of output is failing. How much plate current? The same amount 
as when you do get output?

> Strange thing is, there's no smoke or smell.
>
I would not recommend continuing operation until there is smoke.

>Do you think the Kilovac relay is going bad or?
>
I would expect some arcing or big changes in grid or plate current if 
the relay was failing.

>  What does the reeed relay do?
>
The reed relay switches the drive from the exciter to the low pass 
filters before the cathodes. If that relay does not energize the tubes 
get no drive and you would get no output, and also very little plate 
current. Also the exciter would not have much of a load and you could 
expect some parts on the bias board to get fried because of that. If the 
relay were stuck closed (which is the energized state) I think it would 
work about the same, except with the amplifer off the exciter power 
would continue to go into the low pass filters as well as bypassing the 
amplifier.

> I have one and it looks a little tricky to install and was wondering if it was more likely the cause than the Kilovac or?
>  
>
I think you should look for a control problem. Maybe the bias board is 
getting RF drive before PTT. It is supposed to not allow the amplifier 
to get  keyed in that case to prevent hot switching. I would expect no 
plate current in this case though.


Ken, N6KB