Which plastic tuning tools are recommended by group members? On an unrelated note, I will have to say that group activity has seemed to increase since the switch to Groups.io. A good thing. Scott

I'm not quite sure I understand your inference EJP, though I do not disagree with it. Obviously I was doing something wrong. I just don't follow your "tail chasing" observation. By applying an RF

(This is about to get even further off-topic. Hope that's OK. bI am also not starting a new topic as this is just as off-t. as the original) More interestingly, maybe, though, is that the DC offset

> The problem was in the alignment of the discriminator coil T2. At 98MHz I was using the 400Hz modulated IF pattern on the o'scope to set the tuner to center frequency ... Stop right there. You have

Great observation Joe. I did not consider any IF limiter effects in the IF chip that might be affecting my alignment. Sometimes I don't realize what I don't know! Glad you guys are here to do my

Hi John, Thanks again for info. Will be ordering the adaptors as a start! -- B. Corbin

John, Excellent point, noticed that on some adapters like the ones you posted. That is good, thoughtful design. I've typically soldered caps directly on the trace side of the PCB for this

Hi Radu, Yea the Cimarron adapters are nice when they fit . The ones I referenced also provide solder pads for additional decoupling for both power rails, nice when the new IC falls into oscillation

No affiliation, but I found this US website to have a good range of high quality SIP adapters. I have their 7 pin version which is good for the ubiquitous TA7136:

Bill, HiFi Engine has copies of the both the Service and Users manual if you haven't tracked them down yet. Look for the TU- S77x docs. JohnC

Hi Bill, Well you've done it now, this is what RFM would classify as "Sparrow feed". These little beauties work well enough that even my youngest, literally the sound engineer in the family

John C./Bob, Have the actual mods to the TU-D99X been published yet? Just picked up a 99X and am very taken with a few things right out of the blocks: 1. Excellent sensitivity. 2. Unmodified,

One problem is presented by using signals higher than minimal level is that any Limiter circuits in the IF can go into limiting and prevent a true indication of the tuning of the various circuits in

Thank you so much for your well thought out replies Herb & Bob. I used two ways to center the tuner on the SG frequency. One being as Bob just described - minimal signal and centering the tuning knob

Absolutely...the PET caps are an excellent way to go. When they can be fitted, they're in every coupling position in my KT-8300...and every time that I've changed over to these in that tuner, there

If the center tune meter is moving with temperature, and basically 2 things could be happening. Either 1) the local oscillator is moving in frequency, causing the IF at the detector input to move, or

Mike, I was going thru the file cabinet and came across some Pioneer SM's, so I took a look. The x80 and x50 series used Alps tuning caps but not the Alps RF packs. Also , I had forgotten that at the

All good points. My procedure is to warm the gear (RF, distortion meter, SG and tuner) up for about an hour before alignment. The receivers do get warm as they get tested in a closed cabinet with the

The other thing I'm typically seeing with polypropylene caps is scarce availability of low voltage types (which would obviously make them smaller). Usually, these come at 450V or higher. The MK2s can

Mike, Alps made so many versions of the 4 gang , 1 Dual gate FET and 2 bipolar transistor RF packs back in those days. Some had AGC options, some did not. Some had local oscillator buffers for a