OK,
I confess that after building control and receiver circuits [carefully] with no problems, I wanted to believe the rig was 100% after initial transmitter alignment. I put the rig on the air and made contact immediately.
THEN: a friend loaned me his OHR WM-1 wattmeter so I could actually measure the output. It was all over the map, but always low and not very repeatable.
I checked the soldering.
I resoldered everything that looked even a little suspect.
I measured the resistance of each of the toroids and transformers.
I measured dc voltages.
I monotored the ALC circuit.
I measured rf voltages in the transmitter with the provided probe kit.
Everything seemed ok except the transmitter was low on drive and the power supply current was high.
Wait, I see a patern! Time to check my dummy load.
[I have been using 2w dummy loads for my other qrp rigs. For this job the only thing I have >2w is a Heath Cantenna <2Kw>]
The Cantenna is open! Dummy load is 100Kohm. Not good - but happy dance, the radio is fine [I was very careful with the finals! Very short test times and reasonable current limits.
I check the radio with my qrpp dummy load [1 watt] and all bands put out the asked for [low] power.
I repaired the Cantenna and touched up the transmitter alignment. Power is predictable and controlled on all bands.
Time to open the SSB kit.
The lesson once again is do not assume things - I had not used the dummy load since going qrp 10 years ago.
Wayne
K9NE
K2 S/N 04858
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