Should be more slide than sideband calls for. I'd say put a nail in it.
The request we tend to get is to travel down one whole channel to fill in the RC skip above 3,7,11,15 and 19.
The 148/2000 radio with the three trimmer coils works with the added choke in series with the varactor diode. This puts that choke in line with the slug-tuned coil that the mode in use selects.
The 142/Washington single-conversion radios use a trimmer cap for USB and coils only for AM and LSB. Putting the choke in series with the varactor. Makes things a bit squirrelly in many of these radios. Will "stall" the crystal and cause it to drop out at one extreme of the clarifier.
What works best for us in those radios is to cut the trace on one side of the 11.1125 crystal, and solder the choke across the cut. It does have the drawback that putting USB on frequency with the other two modes may or may not work exactly right. The USB trimmer won't quite travel far enough sometimes.
The channel center frequency will move to the right of 12 o'clock. Setting trimmer with the knob at 3 o'clock usually provides the original 1 or 1 and a half kHz above center, and added coverage below channel center. Never seems to work as well as with the 3-coil PLL circuits. This hookup behaves more consistently from one radio to the next.
Using an EXPO 100 kit made this necessary. The crystals in the kit wouldn't adjust onto frequency without the choke.
Clarifying a SSB station with a stretched clarifier gets touchy. Just touch the knob and you overshoot. Had a customer years ago who used a 142 with a 'stretched" clarifier. He drilled a hole across the clarifier knob and inserted a #4-40 screw an inch long. He could fine tune it with his thumb on the screw head better than twisting the skinny knob. A bigger knob would do the same thing, but he liked this solution.
Had to admit, it worked.
73
