Not always pinging

[Jawbreaker]

My Browning Mark III ,that i just received last week. It seams to be working fine according to the people i have talked to but does not always ping after it has been on for a while around a hour. If some one has one that i could ask some questions about this radio, i would like some feed back thanx.

[kb3ite]

If your Browning is not pinging all the time after it is good and warm the chances are that the cap that causes it to ping is getting weak and no longer storing the energy it needs to ping.It's the cap right before your 6BQ5 tube.Could be a 40 mf or 80 mf depending on if any one changed it out to get a longer ping.Just sounds to me like what ever cap they have in it might be weak or leaking.Hope this helps....
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[Jawbreaker]

Yes thats what i was wondering also i put it to side band upper and lower swithed my meter to modulation and cant get side band to work? Not sure whats going on there? Also im running it on MA and the meter doesnt swing all the way just swings to about 3 on the am side of the meter. And my receiver meter keys all the way when keying the mike. Am i working this right?

[Jawbreaker]

Yes i forgot it has a switch on the back for long and short ping. So must have a bigger cap in it.

[kb3ite]

Ok,Let's start with the modulation meter.I have seen very few radios in my 35 years,even the amature stuff where the modulation meter will read on sideband.They are not going to work on SSB.Now as for the MA postion on your meter.That is the postion you put it in to read the bias voltage on your power tubes.It should not be going all the way up.Matter of fact if you look closely at your meter you will see just a small black box right on the main horzonal line.Right underneath it,You will see it says .....BIAS......This should never really go much above that.It's not going to really hurt anything if it's a bit futher,but if it's to high you will shorten the life of the power tubes.When I use my eagle I alway just let in in the ref postion most times AM OR SSB.Put it in FWD...Key up...Turn your SWR cal till the meter is at the very edge of the scale and than flip it to REF...This is the SWR postion and will read your SWR.Now there a trick...They don't read like your standard SWR meter.If it goes to like a 1 that's 1.5 I think.You can go to CB tricks web site and look at the owner manual for the Mark IV or the Mark III and they have the conversion chart in there for what the reading is on your bird and what the SWR is.But dont look to see the modulation meter swing on side band.Also if your BIAS is up to high you can bring it down by going behinde the transmitter,you see a little adjustment sticking out the back.Becarefull though be cause there are 2.One will say tune....the other bias..You want the bias..key up and just turn it till the meter is as close to the black box as you can get it.Remember now the switch must be in that MA postion for this reading.Now if you want and I recommend it,is set the meter to FWD....key up and turn the SWR cal till the meter is about mid scale,don't have to be perfect but right in the middle works well because it were the meter is most sensitive.Again key up....Pay attention to where the meter is..Now turn the tune untill till get the meter to move up as far as you can from where it was from the start.What you are doing is tuning the radio for the load of your antenna.It may not move up much futher but it dont hurt to check this.That way you are sure that you are tuned to your antenna system.One thing it really helps is the receive.If your not turned as well as you could be you will see a bit of a difference in the receive.Hope this was a help..Welcome to the world of tube stuff LOL
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[kb3ite]

O i forgot to tell you that the receiver meter is supposed to go all the way up when you key.remember you have a separate transmitter and receiver..the transmitter is keying up but remember you receiver is spotted to the same freqency.So when you key up of course the receiver will show full scale.Thats really how the ping came about.The cap that shuts down the audio side of the receiver.thats why when you first key you get the ping.The ping is nothing more than a short lengh of feed back though the receiver untill the cap has a chance to cut out the audio section of the receiver..Bigger cap ..longer it takes...hente..the long ping..smaller the cap shorted the ping...But thats the deal it will go full scale...

[Jawbreaker]

Thank you very much i think it is keying above the bias on the meter i will try that and the swr as well. One other thing is the side band it doesnt seam to be working? I switch both to upper and lower side band and i dont hear the typical sound you hear from side band it just doesnt seam to be there? Not sure if im doing something wrong? Also what does it cost in a ball park figure to go through a Mark 3 and refreshen it up for long time talking. I really didnt bye it for side band but i paid a good price for this radio. On AM it works well just the ping when it warms up. So thanx for all your info i need as much as i can get!!

[Jawbreaker]

I set my bias on the block box but cant get it to go forward on the meter when set to forward to set my swr to switch it back to rev. Also what is the spot mean on the transmeter? Needle dosent move on forward.

[kb3ite]

No problem glade to help.As for the side bade it could be a number of things and without looking at it i couldn't even guess at this point because there are so many things that come into play with the sideband end of the radio.As for having it redone,Well alot of that depends on what may be wrong with the radio.I like Alan at tubes plus or Gegg at Barkett electronics.Both of these guys are very good at getting the old birds up and running again.I would say not counting shipping which is always a pain in the **Censored** as well as costly..Between $150 to as much as $300 depend again what may be wrong.Alot of people get into getting these old rigs and don't relize what a cost they are somtimes to get up and running the way they should be.They are a lot of fun and a great sence of pride comes from having one.....But,they can be costly...Check with Alan at tubesplus..he's about the best in my book.....Dave
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[Jawbreaker]

ok i will try that , i got a quote from a major rebuilder Starts with a B. It was 350 to 450 plus shipping of course. It seams to be working ok just want to get it all freshened up to make it awesome. I just missed a bid on a tram 201a by to seconds! he got me in the end lol. Thanx for all ur responds.

[kb3ite]

You must turn the SWR cal knob while keying it up with the switch in the FWD posion.The meter than should move while turning the Cal knob.Turn it till the meter is at the end of the scale than switch to REF that will be your reading but like I said you are not going to read it like most meters.You need the chart I told you about on cb tricks in the manual.As for the spot,That is to tune your receiver with your transmitter.Go to the channel you want to talk on and push and hold the spot button.Than tune your receiver till you see a carrier or you'll hear the tone.Just peak the single your seeing on the receiver to max and your receiver will now be on the same channel as the transmitter.You must do this every time you want to move to another channel.You have to units there and they must be on the same frequency....Or you will be talking on one and hearing on another...Lot of work dealing with these old things but it's part of the hobby..Good luck and have fun with it..

[Fixer]

Also if your BIAS is up to high you can bring it down by going behinde the transmitter,you see a little adjustment sticking out the back.Becarefull though be cause there are 2.One will say tune....the other bias..You want the bias..key up and just turn it till the meter is as close to the black box as you can get it.Remember now the switch must be in that MA postion for this reading.

The mode switch wants to be in one of the SSB positions to set the bias. Either upper or lower, doesn't matter which one.

Fixer- Alan

[kb3ite]

Thanks,I forgot to tell him to put it on sideband for the bias...