Ok..... (deep breath)
A previous owner, NOT the guy I bought it from, had replaced the 1625 modulators with 6146's, and did a bunch of other hokey mods to it. I bought it. It worked. It sounded kind of crappy, and was getting worse, so I decided to rip out the modulator section and rebuild it as stock. Which I think I did.
Now, I get no RF (no oscillator, nuthin) with the mode selector in Fone position with the plate switch on.
Its normal to get no oscillator at all in fone position with plate switch off.
It IS normal to get the oscillator running, and final grid drive, in CW position with plate switch off.
IT DOES THIS.
And of course, it seems to work just fine in CW mode, plate switch on.
I'm using the xtal, not the vfo, as the vfo dial has come loose and is waaaaaay of frequency. I'm pretty certain back in early July when I was put this thing back together, I had the same problem using the vfo. I'll check this.
When I put a cliplead from the 12by7 cathode to ground, I get the oscillator, regardless of the mode switch.
The mode switch, the xtal switch, and the plate switch all seem to be doing what they are supposed to.
Now... where to go from here? I want this stupid thing off of my work bench, its keeping me from starting some more interesting projects!
That lead us to say there is a wiring mistake on the CW-Phone switch terminal that goes to the plate switch.
This wiring has not been touched. I only worked on the modulator and speech amp sections. The thing USED TO work, GFH (among others) heard it.