#143

In this video we look at strange problem with the vfo frequency alianment. We also discover this is a known problem. Watch as I tackle this in a differnet way.
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[@leroybuller7087]

Wonderful fix. Fun to watch

[@charlesharkin2165]

Brilliant job on the cap spotted that danger the day I bought mine regards ei7gg I am always careful withone

[@rico1319]

It is always a pleasure to see a true craftsman/artist at work with his hands. Another fantastic job my friend!!

[@TheRadioShop]

Many thanks Rico.

[@barbsblogs1563]

Brilliant repair Bud well done thanks for sharing 👌

[@cwebs1000]

Last month I restored my Hw-8 with the same problem. I did not drill the shaft or coupling but removed one of the set screws and replaced it with a longer screw. That way you can still center the dial. Then I drilled two holes on the right side of the bracket and put stop screws with nuts on inside and outside that made then adjustable. The head of the screws would hit for the stops. And believe it or not I used a ball pen hammer to set the plates back in the shaft! I am a retired machinist and we use very small pen hammers, HI HI. Thanks for all your vids. I enjoy them. Carl AB1ZI

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Carl for sharing that information.

[@radiok2ua]

First of all, great video and workmanship. Thanks for sharing. I have two of these radios and one of them has a bad VFO capacitor. Second, it is absolutely delightful to see only positive and encouraging comments, no trolls or nastiness, on any KZbin video! Props to all who have commented!

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks Rus for the kind words. These are really great rigs. I did find these capacitors on E bay I also agree that folks are good at times with comments. Thanks for watching..

[@radiok2ua]

Thanks, Buddy. I'd appreciate a link to the eBay seller.

[@PapasDino]

The HW-8 is a great little rig that just begs to be updated and modified! I've added a lot to mine, many of them small mod kits from John KC90N at 3rd Planet Solar. Folks have to be VERY careful with that main tuning capacitor 'cause if you bust it as you can see it's a real pain to fix and probably impossible to replace unless you can find a parts mule. Great job Buddy!

[@cuban9splat]

Buddy, you never cease to amaze me. A very simple fix for an unfixable problem! Well done, Sir. Well done. Thanks for sharing it with us. 73 DE K7RMJ Frank

[@SkyWire88]

Pretty clever fix, O.M. (Now, let's hear a contact on that old pup.) 😃 73 de WB3EFE

[@juggolizzle]

Finally. A good and little known channel. Just wanted to watch you grow and maybe mimic one day. Maybe I’ll find your Patreon soon.

[@jeffryblackmon4846]

Nicely performed!

[@vetterfellow]

Outstanding Buddy, Your a genius when it comes to electronics. Hip Hip Horay !!!. Thank you for another splendid video.

[@Beretta96Dan]

Nice bit of engineering work there, Buddy. Reminds me of some of my novice days except when I was a novice the transmitter had to be crystal controlled on the frequency. 73, and thanks for sharing. BTW, I have a sweet granddaughter at ECU. Later...Dan w4mnc

[@yay4this]

Fantastic work!

[@LarryDeSilva64]

I have one of those Heathkit HW8 and actually just plugged it in to my 13 v. supply the other day and it works fine but I have no idea who had it before me I bought it off of EBAY last year. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks for sharing.

[@jaybats7865]

Ingenious Buddy love it

[@bundylovess]

Nice repair buddy big thumbs up my friend

[@lylewatts6370]

Yes I like this video because I have a HW-7 Heathkit radio here and the VFO frequency readout paper is almost erased. I will be looking at replacing that paper and moving it a little away from the window dial. Thanks Buddy for another great problem solver.

[@warplanner8852]

Lyle, Google WB3T for his Heathkit pages. He has an image of the dial that can be printed on laser printer decal paper and transferred to a blank dial. He describes how he did it on his site. Good luck es 72 de k6whp. dit dit.

[@TheOpenAirGarage]

Creative and functional fix!!!

[@stanleygerrick6053]

Nice workmanship Buddy! A lot of these older rigs are good in concept but they only need some attention to details and ingenuity to fix them and make them great ones. Dr. Stan KZ8G

[@TheRadioShop]

I agree. Things were a bit simple back then. And a lot of needed details were left out. Thanks for watching.

[@cheezervvvvv]

Pure genius Bud.

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks

[@TRXLab]

excellent job my friend! Thanks for sharing Buddy! 73

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks for stopping in Peter.

[@xraytonyb]

Great repair tip. Thanks!

[@TheRadioShop]

THanks

[@theradiomechanic9625]

Always wanted one of these rigs, but even on the used market they are not cheap. Nice fix Buddy, I think I would have come in from the side with a couple of either 10-32 or 1/4-20 screws as adjustable stops to avoid the file work. However your solution works and should save the cap. Again, Nice work.

[@TheRadioShop]

That would had work great also. So many ways it could be addressed, thanks for sharing your idea. These are nice little rigs and as you said a bit on the pricey side. Even today. Thanks for stopping in.

[@throttlebottle5906]

I like the iron metal for keyer base :)

[@TheRadioShop]

Thanks, It was a gift from a friend. I like it.

[@warplanner8852]

Buddy, there ARE replacements for this cap. They are sold on eBay by a gentleman in the SF Bay Area for about $20. If your viewers do need to get a new cap, then they should do the fixes you describe before replacing the cap.

[@radiok2ua]

Do you have any additional information on this?

[@mikesradiorepair]

Looks like the engineer who designed that potato slicer was sleeping on the job the day he made this. Always a good day when another Heathkit product is rescued from the grave.

[@cwebs1000]

Mike, it is the reduction drive that is the culprit putting to much toque on the Vcap. AB1ZI

[@throttlebottle5906]

probably designed with stops and some bean-counter nixed it for savings to prove their worthiness :))

[@geckoproductions4128]

Please please PLEASE do a video on service monitor basics....what to plug in where, what to set it up at, etc. I hate to admit it, but I've come by a IFR 1200 service monitor, but don't have a clue how to use it. Love your videos and your demonstration methods. Would love for you to teach me how to use my service monitor. Thanks!!!

[@mikesradiorepair]

GeckoProductions The best place to start is read the operating manual. They are a wealth of information and cover in a lot greater detail then any video ever could the units capability, specifications and operating procedures. I have gotten 2 more service monitors in the last month or so and that's what I did, read the manuals cover to cover several times.

[@PapasDino]

Check out the "Repeater-Builder" dot com web site under the IFR1500 where there's an applications manual that although it focuses on the 1500 the techniques are applicable to service monitors in general.

[@mikesradiorepair]

Dino Papas If there is one golden rule with me it's about front end protection. Any equipment that has the input connected to a transmitter or amplifier should be used with caution. Last thing you want to do is blow up a spectrum analyzer or service monitor because you accidently stuffed to much power into it. When I get to half the equipments rated input power level I try to always install a attenuator in line to the input. Some instruments have a attenuator offset that allows you to program in any external attenuators that your using so the readings it displays are correct. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

[@PapasDino]

Mike is right on...nice thing about a lot of service monitors is that they have a built-in dummy load; my IFR for example can digest up to about 150W. They're meant to do that - a spectrum analyzer is NOT without attenuation as Mike points out. But you have to be careful with a service monitor because they often have a separate receiver input which in effect is the input to the monitor's spectrum analyzer section if it has that option - the 1500's "Receive" input will tolerate up to 1/4W; on the other hand the path that leads to the dummy load is separate and engages when the power input exceeds a small amount.

[@TheRadioShop]

I will try and work this in for a future video. The unit is very simple to set up for normal test. One word of caution. Never connect a transmitter to the ANT port at the top between the meter and scope. And as said below the manual is your best reference to operating this unit. I could spend several hours doing videos on the operation of the 1200 and still not cover everything.

[@vhfgamer]

It is actually possible to return yellowed plastic to a original white state. In the video gaming and computer community it is a popular process called "retro bright". Its simple... all you have to do is get some hydrogen peroxide and submerge the plastic in it and leave it under a UV source such as the sun. It won't hurt the lettering or the plastic. All it will do is turn the plastic white again by reversing the damage that caused the yellow in the first place. If you have a great big piece of plastic and don't want to use gallons of normal hydrogen peroxide, get yourself one of those bottles of beauty salon hydrogen peroxide cream. You can then paint it on and cover with plastic wrap to keep it from drying and set it out in the sun for a few hours. Make sure it goes on with a pretty even coat or you might have to reapply if you missed a spot. If you have trouble finding it ask your wife or daughter if they could ask for it next time they go to the beauty salon.

[@mikesradiorepair]

VHFGamer I wouldn't recommend this on dials. They notoriously have ink that is easily removed. I have seen dials where just water washed off all the printing. I have a gallon jug of hair bleaching peroxide gel I get at a local cosmetics distributor for doing the "retro brite" process. The process works great. Just be careful what you use it on. And improperly used it can leave items looking worse than they were before you started due to streaking and blotchy spots.

[@TheRadioShop]

I agree with the method you mention on bringing stuff back to life this way. It does work fairly well. I also have to agree with Mike below. The dial is very old. Does not take much to remove the ink. Just yesterday I was cleaning some tuning caps that were ceramic and wiped the printing off with a dry cloth. A few years ago a friend brought over a vintage AM radio. It was not a hard fix to get it working. While I was repairing a IF coil he started cleaning the case. Wiped the printing off the back of the glass in one pass. He frowned lol.

[@mikesradiorepair]

The Radio Shop I can just hear Homer Simpson now. Doooooohhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

[@michaelpfister8953]

believe it or not i use arm and hammer baking soda toothpaste on my kenwood ts 520 faceplate and knobs and they came out like they just rolled of the production line .safe for the white lettering ect.works nice fellas.try it cheap too brush your teeth clean and restore your rig .73s wa2qpc.

[@gonebamboo4116]

12:54 Good one! Haha

[@MichaelLloyd]

I bought some replacement HW-8 tuning capacitors with vernier drives earlier this year but I can't remember the name of the company. They are direct replacements. I bought 5 and, true to form, I can't find them at the moment so I can't see if there is a company name on the box. 73 NE5U MIke

[@radiok2ua]

Let me know if you'd like to make one available for another HW-8 owner in need. Thanks and 73, Rus, K2UA

[@MichaelLloyd]

Edit- I'm not sure if I have vernier and cap or just cap.

[@kennynvake4hve584]

could you not have used the mounting screw of the capacitor mount, that was already in there, as a stop? You would had to drill the hole in the brass bushing at an angle which you could have by rotating the brass bushing, drilling it, and turning it back where it should be.

[@TheRadioShop]

There are many ways this could be done.

[@billbates7810]

Nice fix! A really neat solution. G6ATO

[@MichaelLloyd]

I can't find my parts but I wanted to leave a link to what I'm told is the largest air variable cap manufacturer in the US. This is where I got my "safely stored away so well that I can't find them" HW-8 tuning cap (pretty sure it's the tuning cap but since I can't find them it may just be the drive). www.orenelliottproducts.com/index.html

[@AF6LJSue]

:)

[@TheRadioShop]

:-)