[Heath] SB102 Main Tuning Knob And Friction Wheel

[Rich Sahlender]

Hopefully the following will make sense to those of you familiar with
the SB102 VFO and the curious "friction?" method used by the main tuning
knob to actually tune the VFO.

I acquired a SB102 on which the VFO main tuning knob was spinning without
moving the VFO. The old ragedy manual that was provided with it is useless
as the pages related to how the mechanism works are badly worn and / or
missing. So until I can get a usable copy of the manual I am winging it.

I pulled off the main tuning knob and found that the "friction?" wheel on
the stud that the knob installs on was not making contact with the
"ring?" on the VFO mechanism itself. Curious design. Anyway it looks
like there are remains of an old disintegrated o-ring originally on that
wheel. Is there supposed to be such a ring to provide the friction with
the VFO?

The two "plates?" that make up the friction wheel are snug but not so
much that they cannot simply be pushed down onto the ring attached to
the VFO mechanism so that the ring slips in between the two plates. So I
went ahead and did that and it now tunes the VFO just fine but... should
it be left this way to operate or should I be looking for an
appropriately sized o-ring to slip on the wheel to provide friction with
the ring in the VFO mechanism?

tnx es 73 de Rich WA3WLH