DX-40

[Charles Seitz]

I recently revamped my DX-40.  I looked under
the chassis an commented to myself that it looks
like a 17 year old kid wired it.  One did - me.

I replaced the electrolytic capacitors and fired
the thing up.  There was no sizzling, smoke or
detonations of any kind.  The tubes all lit up and
the voltages were all in spec.

The rock I used on 40M cw as a novice was still
there.  Everything  went well when I loaded the
rig into a dummy load.  Grid current was fine and plate
current peaked and dipped exactly as it did 40+
years ago.

I never bought the VF-1 back then so I found
one at a hamfest.  Using the VFO, I tried the
DX-40 on other bands.  On 10M tuning appeared
to be somewhat erratic.  I spent some time rewiring
the bypass capacitors around the 6146 so that
their leads were shortened.  The tuning situation
was somewhat improved.

Finally, when a local ham was selling some of his
'stuff', I spotted a nice chrome plated microphone
that appeared to be ca. 1958.  I restored the
original mic connector, connected the mic and,
to my amazement, the AM modulator still works.

The rig is almost original, except for the filter
caps and some rusty hardware that I replaced
for cosmetic reasons.  It's really a neat classic
rig and it has become one of my most prized
possessions.

                      ---CHAS  WA2DYA

-----------------------------------------------------------
This list is a public service of the City of Tempe, Arizona
-----------------------------------------------------------

Subscription control - http://www.tempe.gov/lists/control.asp?list=HEATH
To post - HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Archives - http://interactive.tempe.gov/archives/HEATH.html