The AM Forum

of course, now I will find an exact replacement KW matchbox input coil for a dollar at the fester this weekend.  ::)

now gotta hook it in and try it. Haven't tried amp yet.

wifey had glass beadmaking kiln on yesterday and that takes 15 A all by itself. So no powa left over. I'll try it this morning.

Damn Timmy, you do good work !

thanks bud!  :) few solder connections and I can try it out. Hope I got the taps on the main coil right. The big bonus would be if I plugged in the amp and she kicks off with RF.

Tim,

That looks really good!  I'm not that familiar with the internals of the Johnson Matchbox.  Is the green colored coil part of the regular circuit that, you're trying to rebuild, or is it for the 160m add-on, that you said you wanted to do?

73,
Ellen - AF9J

it's the replacement RF link coupling coil to replace the one that hammy hambone removed; made by ef johnson, which he thought he could do better at. The green wire coil and the supports / spacers were hand made by me. I am soldering the last few internal connections now (12 noon Thursday 27) and I'll post other pix soon. the case is not going back on quite yet  :P

depending on what I find at the hamfest will decide whether it gets black crackled or not.

oops, sorry Ellen, I didn't address ur ?   the 160 add on will be 2 banks of fixed value caps switched from 2 extra holes hambone drilled in the front next to the regular bandswitch. So you'll switch to 80, then switch in C as needed, one for each cap, and balanced between  I also am going to add a input coupling cap to the green coil instead of just grounding the far end. A bit more range that way.

right now just doing what I need to do to get on tonight. There's no satisfaction in endlessly working on gear and not being able to get on the air. It's just frustrating.

Yes, I found out yesterday that winding coils is good for the soul.  I started winding a new input tuning coil network for the 813 rig yesterday.  The one I had which was an link coil assembly from a Johnson and used for the HB 813 rig appears not to cut the mustard when tickling the grids of the 813s.  The new one will be smaller and hopefully more efficient.

Thanks for the info. Tim,

As for the frustration due to working on gear all the time and not operating - I know the feeling first hand.  When condx. were lousy, and the Scout just wasn't cutting it due to the QRN and QRM, I was effectively off the air on AM.  The Viker was still down.  I was either waiting for parts, it was too late (and/or I was burned out) to work on it, or there was the baffling problem of plate current for the finals being up in the stratosphere (which turned out to be the the non-standard clamper pot, requiring more turns of adjustment, than the expected 1-turn maximum]).  Hang in there, you're finally finishing things up.

73 & hoping to ehar you tonight,
Ellen - AF9J

I got taken fer a grocery store ride by wifey - I'm going back to work now.  :P

got it wired - seems to worketh well with very sharp tuning. I have 2 JS connections I made just to check to see if it worked  to fix then it's done, but I can get on 75 again as of ...now!!!!!

Cool!  I'll listen for you tonight.

Ellen - AF9J

Should have sharp tuning - you did everything right!

Look forward to hearing you on the air OM

Looks almost stock.

I was working from a ebay photograph of the inside of one. I had never seen one on the inside before.

The right side setscrew (only had one instead of 2) had fallen out and I couldn't tune it. I asked Johnny N. to let me adopt her as I cant stand gear thats been butchered. I get an emotional attachment to them like others do to animals that's been mistreated.

talked to KG2IR this morning reported good signals. After some house cleaning and putting tools away we will test the amp with the new T/R relay and see if we get powa.