Wednesday 14 October 2015

Pye PF8 - The difficulties begin

Well, no one said it would be straight forward! A set of this vintage is bound to have some issues. With the battery terminal fixed and the cells given a very gentle and cautions charge, ive been able to test the radio out 'on air'. Using a whip antenna on my Marconi 2955, I was pleased to discover that apart from being a little temperamental on the lower PTT control, she transmits quite nicely. Deviation is also acceptable at about 3.4kHz.

She also receives, the squelch, which seems very tight, breaking at -30dBm - but bear in mind thats over the air with the radio a few inch from the antenna! Volume is good and distortion is low. But - theres a problem!

According to the radios frequency plate, it should receive on 453.2MHz. According to the receive crystal, she should receive at 459.7MHz (same as Tx!), but she actually receives at 454.35MHz!

I suspect its an alignment issue. These are 3rd overtone crystals, so it might just need pulling in

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