[TenTec] Bliss: Omni 546C working FB again

Marinus Loewensteijn zl2ml at hotmail.com
Wed Jul 9 00:26:37 EDT 2008


Finally got the Omni 546-C working like it would have when it came out of the factory.
Replaced the new drivers (that had trouble getting a low bias) with the ones I took out 
and bias adjusted FB. The new  finals (MRF 454, MACOM) are working like a charm with
more output on the highest bands. Their bias adjusted without a hitch. 

Checked the keying shape and this is real nice now, no leading spikes. I blame the keyer 
sending a dit on power up and when the rig is powered an RF signal is being generated 
before all circuits are fully initialised.  There was the wrong value for a capacitor in the 
keying control circuit in the transceiver which resulted in a leading spike and these two 
items hastened the demise of the MRF 458 finals.

Put a push button with relay in the keyer so it drops out the power connection from the 
keyer and hence when switching on the rig the keyer is not triggering the TX into 
producing an RF signal.

Had some fun adjusting the carier oscillator frequencies, this was off a bit. (Had already 
been told in some QSO's that I was off frequency and the tone of the hiss was not
the same on normal and reversed SSB.) Looks the handling of the board was enough
to upset the trimmer capacitors.

I had intended to replace the heatsink with one that has the fins vertical oriented (and 
hence increasing the cooling capacity) and had it already drilled and ready to go in. 
However it just did not look "the part" and I put the original heatsink back on. The
rig is now all original for two deviations: using a 600 Hz Inrad CW filter and the narrow
audio setting is now using three stahes instead of the four stages. This has made the
narrow audio setting a lot more pleasant.

Thanks for everyone who helped with advice on rebuilding this .

Thumbs up to TenTec service who gave great advice and were very patiently answering 
my constant stream of questions.

One project completed now onto finishing the 228 ATU redesign / rebuild. 

73
Marinus, ZL2ML

_________________________________________________________________
Free Windows Live software. Chat, search, share pics and more
http://get.live.com/


More information about the TenTec mailing list