Hi again,
Evidently the 962, with only two internal boards, differs
in the lack of the 25 amp pass transistors fuse which is
in the 961 in which there is a third board just for
the pass transistors. In the 962, the regulator ckty
and pass transistors are all on the board on the back
panel of the supply.
It has been suggested that my problem is that I have
been attempting to reactivate/test the PS using the
10 amp, "Fast Acting" fuses. TT wants one to use
a 5 amp, Slow Blow fuse. And, I did the reactivate
test with the PS plugged back into the Omni to connect
the center terminals together, with the Omni OFF,
of course.
With the 10 amp fast in the holder, when I turn the
PS ON, I hear a brief sound, and nothing, and, of
course the 10 amp fuse is blown. So I went into
Lihue to our one and only source for such things,RS,
and bought a package of 5 amp Slow Blow fuses.
Got home to install same -- they are about 1/2
size, just rattles in the fuse holder! Thought they
looked a little small in the store, but took a chance.
They measure 5 x 20 mm!
So until I go into town again, am stuck with the use of
a 12 amp Astron supply, which is running the Omni VI
or Triton just fine, but I limit the Power Out from either rig
to about 20 watts to minimize the supply current
draw needs. This is ok as I can easily pump that
up to around 200 watts with my 10 dB gain little
Henry solid state linear.
Talked to Scott at Ten Tec before going into Lihue, and
ordered a reprint of the Triton 544 Digital manual, and
a PTO rehab/rebuild kit, and a new 962 to operate the
Triton. If the right 5 amp Slow Blow fuse, when I find
one, will not reactivate my present 962, told Scott I
would return it for repair.
I appreciate the detailed debug ideas I have been sent by
a few of you, in particular, Bill, N4ALG who sent along
quite a circuit description and debug procedure. Unfortunately,
my vision, and a couple other problems, prevent me from
following them, so will just have to have Tec Tec service
folks attend to what ever may be needed.
I also rec'd some super neat thoughts/ ideas about the
Digital Triton 544 rig. They were from Carey, no call sign
indicated, but so good, I thought some of you might
enjoy his comments, he obviously is very familiar with
the innards and performance of both 540 and 544
Tritons; here are a few of Carey's thoughts:
"My main concern now with those two rigs is the presence
of desense when a very strong signal is on 15 meters. I got
it 100 khz away from the code practice signals from W1AW in
Colorado, but then on the first mixer board adjusted the
trimpot and got the mixer better balanced. However,
there may be IMD and desense problems during contests
particularly if your antenna is good. That's my primary concern,
though with the mixer balanced, it may be quite OK. My 540
I just bought was well aligned except for the mixer balance pot.
I really don't think that the rigs are less noisy, only kind of well
balanced, and I don't think they suffer from weak signal distortion like
my Icom 735. But the noise floor seems like it is higher. The active
mixer may need redesign. The nice thing is that it would be very easy
to wire wrap a board or perfboard it and just plug it in to the rig.
Use, like a Plessey active balanced mixer, and solve the problems.
Hard to imagine where the effort would be best rewarded with
performance. Maybe go to a 10 pole filter (12 pole?) Internal DSP?
That's the way I want to go. I like the idea that no one knows what's
under the hood. But, I really want to recommend you listen to 75 meter
SSB with and without the noise blanker. The ladder filter does not ring
as much as the Tchebyshev filters (or is it lattice filters) in other
popular rigs. It's almost like having DSP, and I really can tell the
difference. Static crashes are not as long as on the big name rigs. I
can say I never heard such good signals on 80 on any other rig. Maybe
the Omni VI you have is good there too, but the popular rigs are much
worse, like a ton worse.
Another thing, and it's that tentatively I can not adjust the balanced
mixer for both the external (242) vfo and the receiver so that it
rejects spurious equally well. Another area for study. (But, I don't
have the manual for the 242, and the solution may be in the directions.)
Another thing is that with the 544, on 10 meters the signals are better
by two S units when using the 242 than when switching back to the 544
vfo. (Mystery.) (The s/n ratio does not seem to be affected.)
I think the 750 HZ audio filter rings just a bit. It may be that the
crystals for the BFO are just a little drifty, though that isn't
bothering me now. When you start sending CW, the square
wave relaxation oscillator sidetone drifts a bit for the first few
seconds. "
No one has yet offered to sell me the Triton Remote
VFO, #242.
So, that's the afternoon status on Kauai, hi.
73, Jim, KH7M
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