RangerII Question

[K2FW]

I'm working on a RangerII that has had all of the Tim Tron audio mods as well as the PTT circuitry installed.  I've solid- stated the PS & bumped up the filtering to a total of 50uf & 100uf on the HV & LV power respectively.  I still notice a slight hum or noise & wonder if it could be hum or noise coming from the tube filaments as all the tubes in the Ranger have one side of their filaments connected to ground for the voltage source.  Is it a good idea to lift the filament of every tube in the transmitter & supply the voltage through a filament buss wire instead of doing it the cheap & dirty way they did it in the Ranger, as they simply grounded the one lead coming off the filament winding for 6.3vac?
Thanks for any information!
73's,
Steve K2FW

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I still notice a slight hum or noise & wonder if it could be hum or noise coming from the tube filaments as all the tubes in the Ranger have one side of their filaments connected to ground for the voltage source.

How are you noticing  this hum or noise? Scope, adjacent receiver, on the air report, etc.

[K2FW]

I still notice a slight hum or noise & wonder if it could be hum or noise coming from the tube filaments as all the tubes in the Ranger have one side of their filaments connected to ground for the voltage source.

How are you noticing  this hum or noise? Scope, adjacent receiver, on the air report, etc.

Hi Pete........I got an on the air report, but I can also hear it on the air through my A-4 off the diode load.........pulling out the audio tubes while listening to it in my receiver doesn't change anything Pete.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I still notice a slight hum or noise & wonder if it could be hum or noise coming from the tube filaments as all the tubes in the Ranger have one side of their filaments connected to ground for the voltage source.

How are you noticing  this hum or noise? Scope, adjacent receiver, on the air report, etc.

Hi Pete........I got an on the air report, but I can also hear it on the air through my A-4 off the diode load.........pulling out the audio tubes while listening to it in my receiver doesn't change anything Pete. Grounding on one side of the filaments is common in many rigs.

I'll you pulled all the audio/modulator tubes and still hear hum, at least you know it's not generated there. Grab a scope and see what kind of AC ripple you have on the power supplies and if "fine", then move on and check the other stages. Did you have the hum before you solid-stated the supplies?

[K2FW]

I'll you pulled all the audio/modulator tubes and still hear hum, at least you know it's not generated there. Grab a scope and see what kind of AC ripple you have on the power supplies and if "fine", then move on and check the other stages. Did you have the hum before you solid-stated the supplies?

Pete, I just got this transmitter back from Dee, W4PNT in Va.  I don't want anyone on here to think he didn't do a really great job, because he did.  He basicly restored the entire transmitter for me. I guess you could say I'm being rather fussy, but I can hear the hum in there.  When I use my Eico720 on AM, I don't hear this.  I'll take a look with the scope as you pointed out, as that's a good idea. I'm still wondering about the tube filaments though as Timmy mentioned this as a potential problem in his Ranger article on the web.

[W2VW]

The Ranger filaments shouldn't need re-wiring to kill hum. You could be developing hum right in the VFO too. Might be PM. Funnier things have happened. Maybe feed some R.F. into the crystal socket form another source and re-check.