Viking II High Voltage problem

Ray,

Congratulations on getting it going and you are welcome.

I have heavier vintage gear but the Thunderbolt is the most awkward to move about and work on because you cannot remove the heavy plate transformer without also unsoldering a number of wires. Be very careful with it given its high voltage and be sure and have it unplugged and the HV grounded while working on it.

Lubricate the fans in it, they probably were not properly lubed in years and are getting old and need all of the help they can get. I had one of the same type fans that went up in a smelly cloud of smoke in my Desk KW a few months ago. I added inrush current limiters (available from Mouser or Digikey) to reduce the turn on stress on the transformer. Mine is used with a Johnson Pacemaker and an RME-6900 receiver; it makes a nice vintage SSB station and works OK on AM. I don't know if you are planning to drive yours with the Viking 2 but if you use it on AM you will need to swamp the output of the Viking 2 and you are generating a lot of heat for about 6 db gain of RF so I don't really think that is a good application for the T-Bolt, on CW it is worthwhile since you can run the T-Bolt in Class C and get around 700 watts out. The T-Bolt is well suited for a low power SSB rig like a Central Electronics 10 or 20 series that also runs AM or it would work well with a Drake 4 line or similar controlled carrier AM transmitter.

Rodger WQ9E