[Drakelist] Drake crystals accuracy

2011-09-16 Thread Neil M Califano
Do aging Drake crystals lose accuracy? ___ Drakelist mailing list Drakelist@zerobeat.net http://mailman.zerobeat.net/mailman/listinfo/drakelist

Re: [Drakelist] Drake crystals accuracy

2011-09-16 Thread Garey Barrell
Yes, ALL crystals drift with age. Strangely enough, it's called 'aging'!! :-) The rate at which they age varies with the cut of the quartz, frequency, the manufacturer's quality control, storage temperature, operating current, etc., etc., etc. The original frequency spec is +/- 0.003%.

[Drakelist] Changing crystal frequency

2011-09-16 Thread Neil M Califano
Someone I know used to write on crystals with a pencil claiming the frequency could be changed. Is this true or an urban legend, because graphite is crystalline? ___ Drakelist mailing list Drakelist@zerobeat.net

Re: [Drakelist] Changing crystal frequency

2011-09-16 Thread Richard Knoppow
- Original Message - From: Neil M Califano cchange...@yahoo.com To: Drakelist@zerobeat.net Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 5:05 PM Subject: [Drakelist] Changing crystal frequency Someone I know used to write on crystals with a pencil claiming the frequency could be changed. Is this

Re: [Drakelist] Drake crystals accuracy

2011-09-16 Thread Jim Shorney
On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:31:39 -0400, Garey Barrell wrote: Yes, ALL crystals drift with age. Strangely enough, it's called 'aging'!! :-) Interstingly enough, the 40 Meter crystals (at least in the C-Line era) seem to age less gracefully than most. 73 -Jim -- Ham Radio NU0C Lincoln,

Re: [Drakelist] Changing crystal frequency

2011-09-16 Thread Curt
- Original Message - From: Richard Knoppow 1oldle...@ix.netcom.com To: Neil M Califano cchange...@yahoo.com; Drakelist@zerobeat.net Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 7:32 PM Subject: Re: [Drakelist] Changing crystal frequency Did this myself in 1960, and it works. The added mass will

Re: [Drakelist] Drake crystals accuracy

2011-09-16 Thread Richard Knoppow
- Original Message - From: Jim Shorney jshor...@inebraska.com To: Drakelist@zerobeat.net Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 6:41 PM Subject: Re: [Drakelist] Drake crystals accuracy On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:31:39 -0400, Garey Barrell wrote: Yes, ALL crystals drift with age. Strangely

Re: [Drakelist] Changing crystal frequency

2011-09-16 Thread Garey Barrell
The older (FT-243 style) crystals could be opened with just three small screws. The rectangular piece of quartz could be removed and cleaned, -OR-, you could make marks on it with a pencil to LOWER the frequency a very small amount. Essentially you were just adding a little mass to the

Re: [Drakelist] Drake crystals accuracy

2011-09-16 Thread Garey Barrell
Jim - I don't know about that on the C-Line. The 40M crystal in the 2-B is definitely more 'failure prone' that the others, but I think that is because of the oscillator circuit Drake used. The 40M crystal is the 'last' (highest) fundamental crystal used, the next one up is run in overtone

Re: [Drakelist] Drake crystals accuracy

2011-09-16 Thread Jim Shorney
On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:07:04 -0400, Garey Barrell wrote: Perhaps the 40M crystal is confused about which mode it's supposed to be in?!?! A new 6EA8 seems to 'fix' a large number of these crystals. Does it fix them when they are 40 KHz off? 73 -Jim -- Ham Radio NU0C Lincoln, Nebraska,

Re: [Drakelist] Drake crystals accuracy

2011-09-16 Thread lee
There are crystal made cheaply and then some made with more labor and usually are more expensive. Better ones are slowly ground to frequency. Cheaper ones are ground close to frequency and then doped to bring them on frequency. This process is faster then the prior one. However, the doped

Re: [Drakelist] Changing crystal frequency

2011-09-16 Thread lee
Rubbing solder on instead of graphite works a little better as the lead has more mass then graphite. Thus, the oscillations are slightly less and the lead can lower the frequency slightly more then graphite. Lee Bahr, w0vt -Original Message- From: Neil M Califano Sent: Friday,