Sparky's CB Shack Thumbs Up

[Highlander_821]

So I blew up my Galaxy DX2517 a week or two ago, probably running SSTV on 10 meters at too high of a level.

Normally, I would have sent the rig to SS8541 Electronics, but shipping has gotten so damn high, I figured I'd drive the 40 miles to Sparky's CB Shack here in central IL, and see if they could take care of it for me.

Al was great on the phone, let me know what the approximate turnaround time would be, and gave me good directions to the shop.

Entering the shop, you can see a work area with all the requisite test equipment one wants to see, like 'scope and sig generator, etc. Nice.

I picked the set up today, and I am very pleased. Power is as very close to what it was before, maybe a watt or three more than before. Al said the EKL 1969s are a little hotter than the ones that came out of it (2132?) My very stingy Astatic 600 is showing 37 watts on 11 meters, and 28 watts on 10 meters. Before the repair, I was right at 35/25.

Everything else is just as it was, RX is really good, modulation in all modes is great and getting compliments. When I told Al that Richard Byrd at SS8541 Electronics had set it up, he said that he could tell that someone who knows their stuff had been in it---he was very complementary to 8541 for their work. He said that everything about the radio was bang-on, all he had to do was drop in the new components and set the bias for the TX, and that was it.

So I am happy to report that the Galaxy is back in the black, playing good for me. Now I just have to watch those audio levels and drive when I run SSTV with it.....

Thanks again, Sparky. Nice work.

 

[Robb]

When using SSTV; isn't the duty cycle of the transmitter an issue? I've never used that means of transmission, but I have read up on it. The article pointed out that the output power setting must be turned down to sustain a longer key-down.

 

[Highlander_821]

Yes, when running SSTV, you are transmitting SSB for anywhere from 16 seconds for a quick black and white image, to well over a minute for some protocols like Scottie 1 and Martin 1. I think one rule of thumb is to set your transmitter levels to approximately 1/3 of whatever full power is on the rig in SSB mode. So if you have a 100 watt radio, probably about 30-35 watts is what you want to run.

So with my DX2517, which maxes out around 28 watts on 10 meters, I should keep it to around 8-10 watts pep. To be honest, I was a little buzzed the day that this happened, so I wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing power-wise.

I'm just glad that all I did was smoke the finals, and that I have access to a competent tech locally now. BTW, I felt that what Sparky's charged was ridiculously reasonable. :w00t: