Ranger Question

[wb5kcm]

Ok Rodger, it sounds like you have had your share of issues with the Ranger. Hopefully you will have it all fixed where it will operate without hum for a long time. I bought my Ranger a couple months ago from a local ham here in the Dallas area and did not power it on due to it was in a stage of disassembly and still had all the old paper and electrolytic caps in it. So, I am unaware how it was operating before I did all the mods. Some of the minor issues that I am having now may have existed before I did the mods, not sure. I am thinking that I may have a wiring error or something. I keep going back over all the wiring trying to make sure everything is hooked up to the correct point. After I replaced the 6146 and the two 1614's it corrected most of the problems. Really the only thing I have now is the weird residual final current after its keyed for a period of time. As it was suggested, it's most likely something not quite correct in the clamper tube section. Also the inrush current fuse blowing. I just got back from the Belton, Texas hamfest yesterday afternoon. I have the Ranger opened up here on the bench now and will start working on it this week. Thanks for all your input. 73, Randy

[WQ9E]

Hi Randy,

I imagine you will find your odd current problem in the clamper circuit, most likely the 6AQ5 itself. 

I have every expectation that my Ranger 1 will now be a reliable producer of clean RF and AF for the Desk KW.  I had a Valiant as a novice and I have used a number of Johnson rigs over the years without reliability problems.  I imagine this particular Ranger had a lot of hours on the tubes before I got it and it has been trouble-free for at least 6 months of very frequent operation.  The Ranger/Desk KW/HRO-50 is my most used AM station.

I do think the Ranger will get a little vacation coming up as I finally finished going through my "new" Viking 500.  It got new filter caps, removal of some roughly installed audio mods, and a new resistor in the bias string to replace one that had tripled in value and kept it from working on AM.  I also went in and replaced the resistor in the VFO and cleaned and lubricated the reduction drive.  I spent several hours testing it into a dummy load today and everything is working as it should.  Next week I am pairing it with my Pierson KP-81 and will see how it plays on some of the AM nets.

73, Rodger WQ9E

 

[wb5kcm]

Hey Rodger, Just got the thermistors put into the Ranger and the HQ-170. Both are working like a champ. While I had the Ranger open, I went ahead and mounted a fuse holder in the rear of the chassis and put in the grounded AC cable. I just put the fuse (5 amp) in line with the AC hot (black) lead. I had a spare 6146 here (Amperex with 1967 date code). With this new 6146 the weird plate current has stopped. I noticed that when I had this unkeyed plate current there was voltage on the 6146 screen and it would slowly drop off as the plate current dropped. With this new Amperex tube, all I show is abou 15ma on the meter. From what was told me in other messages this is normal. I suspect that the other 6146 is gassy or something causing this. I was on 3880 earlier and several stations gave me good signal reports..so I guess its working well now. Will look for you on the air. 73, Randy