[TenTec] Argonaut 509: Exorcist needed!

[Richard Arland]

OK, gang, sit down and enjoy this....Somebody might as well....I know I'm not!

Remember that "Near-mint" 509 I got a couple of weeks ago? I thought I had most of the problems ironed out except the 10M osc (it doesn't). 

Well......Edsel Murphy paid me a visit today:

I received the PTO rebuild kit from Garland Jenkins at T-T. Gee, I'd forgotten how much "fun" a PTO rebuild was! I started at 0930 this morning and finished at 1500! That damned grease was a pain to get out....I ended up using a ultrasonic cleaner and some alcohol! After spending about 45 minutes in the alcohol with the ultrasonic cleaner buzzing away, most of the gunk came off. I finished the rebuild and reinstalled the PTO and then we played the game "Frustration" as I tried to re-do the dial cord, only to find BOTH of the plastic pointers that T-T had shipped me with PTO kit were broken in the plastic baggies! I re-used the original dial pointer and finally got the dial cord on properly. 

The PTO worked fine; the dial tracked fine, so I decided to recheck the alignment of the OSC coils just to be sure nothing had shifted in the rebuilding process. I fired up the counter, took the output of the PTO into the counter and checked each band (10M was still dead, even though I had reheated all the solder connections on the coil, and as many of the wafer switch lugs on the bandswitch as I could reach). I was checking each band and tweaking the OSC coils to perfection, when, as I tuned the 20M OSC coil, the oscillator stopped! The counter showed "000.0"!

This is NOT fair! I moved the coil and the oscillator took off again! Ahah! A cold solder joint. I was about to unplug the Argo when the dial lights blew out! Now, I'm getting pissed! 

Making a long story short: I finally ended up with the front panel entirely removed from the rig. I reheated the 20M coil, and got a better shot at the 10M coil, so I got it hot, too. I fired the rig back up and everything (except 10M, of course) was working....UNTIL, I touched the 20M coil, again!Bingo! The oscillator stopped, again! 

As it stands now, I have the front of the radio apart. I plan on removing the 20M coil and giving it a close physical inspection to see if I have a broken wire on the coil or what. Does anyone know of a replacement for this coil AND the 10M coil! I doubt that T-T still stocks them, although I could be wrong. 

Garland said, in a telephone call a couple of weeks ago, it was either a cold solder joint (for the 10M problem) or a bandswitch wafer.....I can hardly wait! So, I plan on trying to get the bandswitch apart as much as I can and clean up the connections there and try to remove the 10 M coil (as well as the 20M coil) and check them both over for defects. 

I have a couple of questions:

 1. Has anyone out there encountered a similar problem with the 10 and 20 M oscillator coils on an Argo 509? 
  2. If so, what was your "fix"?
    3. Can anyone provide me with info on replacement coils for both of these oscillator coils? 
      4. Does anyone know of a QRP DXer Priest that will perform an exorcism?

Stay tuned for further developments. 

(Hey! Turner! Where are you when I REALLY need you?)

73 Rich K7SZ