Browning Golden Eagle MK III problems

[crazy_cooter]

Hello all, I am brand new to this forum, and joined with the intent of sharing or trading repair information with other fellow techs. I own a beautiful Browning Golden Eagle Mark III SSB, and it's been a headache for several days now. Here is what it is doing: I was sitting next to the radio listening to it, and it just keyed up by itself! I never touched the microphone, which is a non amplified G-stand d-104. I immediately turned the radio off and unplugged the mike, scratching my head wondering what happened. I tried the Electro-Voice Banana mike and the radio just hums or buzzes. The hum is coming from the area of the 7558 final tube. I tried plugging in the d-104 to the radio again, and it just keys itself up without touching the sidebar. I thought it was a mike issue, as i tore down the d-104 and inspected it for shorts, bare wires, ect and found absolutely nothing that would put the mic to blame for the issue. Both mikes that I have worked fine on this radio, so I know it isnt the problem. It's something internal in the transmitter and I am now completely lost. Does anybody have a clue what might be causing this, before I break the bank and send the radio to a reputable Browning repairman who charges close to 40 dollars an hour?

 

[crazy_cooter]

wow i can't believe i havent had any hits on this topic yet

 

[n0zna]

wow,

i never heard of such a thing.Let it sit without a mic.And see if it happens.I have had many birds and never heard of that...73s good luck and post what you or they find wrong,got me baffeled.73s de JW

 

[crazy_cooter]

it's got me baffled too...and doesnt make any sense. I am thinking maybe a bad filter capacitor possibly. I took the d-104 off the radio, and I am testing it with the banana mike. I get a hum when its keyed up. The hum is in the audio, and you hear it inside the radio too. It still puts out full wattage though. I dont get the keyup ping either with my hum i am experiencing

 

[Kamikaze]

it's got me baffled too...and doesnt make any sense. I am thinking maybe a bad filter capacitor possibly. I took the d-104 off the radio, and I am testing it with the banana mike. I get a hum when its keyed up. The hum is in the audio, and you hear it inside the radio too. It still puts out full wattage though. I dont get the keyup ping either with my hum i am experiencing

Dunno about the key up but the bananna mic might have a bad ground connection. You can also get a nice bite from this when holding the mic and unkeying if your other hand is grounded. I'd re-do the connector.

 

[W2WDX]

Check this

Hi,

OK ... what you need to do is check a few things inside the radio. In series going from the Pin 2 on the mic connector there should be a 22K 10W resistor (R62) which then leads to one side of the relay coil. Sometimes this resistor begins to go bad. If you can unsolder one lead of this resistor and measure the resistance across it and make sure it's on or near 22k.

Also check to make sure the wiring in the radio between that resistor and the mic connector isn't shorting against the chassis anywhere. Sometimes this wire can get hot (along with your mic cord wiring) if R62 begins to fail and drops in value, essentially forcing more current to flow on the mic side of that resistor. This can cause the insulation to melt and the wires (particularly on bends) to poke out and ground out on the chassis (GND).

This is pretty much the only way (short of a bad mic situation or a defective mic cord) that the transmitter could intermitently key on its own.


BTW ... the "bite" can happen from several things with a D104 on this radio. First, if you have RF in the shack from a feedline mismatch. That bite is RF energy getting right in your face, so-to speak. Check your VSWR. OR it can simply be that your safety grounding is not complete. If your radio still has a two prong AC plug, YOU MUST connect a ground wire to the ground lug on the back of the radio and connect that wire to either your AC household ground or a ground rod which is also bonded to your AC ground. Even if that means connecting the wire to the outside of an outlet box by connecting it to the center screw holding the receptacle cover on. (This is assuming your recepticles are "to code" and properly grounded).

While this last method is not ideal, if your recepticle box is properly grounded, this will surfice for a safety ground, bleeding off floating currents on the chassis. This may not be a good RF ground but it will provide an adequate safety ground. A side benifit is it may help lower a high side SWR issue (if you have one).


John, W2WDX

 

[N9TGW]

I know the post I'm replying to is over 9 years old but I didnt see any response that the issue was fixed. I just picked up a beautiful GE MKIII so this caught my eye... Check all your electrolytic capacitors. the age of the radio, means that some of the old caps may have popped. If so, it (one of them) more than likely shorted out and is keying the radio due to the way the dolly pop is wired. It only takes a couple wires and the shield to wire the mike properly. But people try to use all the leads if not the wrong ones So make sure the D104 is wired properly as well. The shield is connected to the shell of the connector, audio goes to one pin and the key lead goes to the other. The key lead is open on receive, and grounds to the shield when the mike is keyed use a dmm to ring these out with the base plate removed

 

[N9TGW]

Check this

Hi,

OK ... what you need to do is check a few things inside the radio. In series going from the Pin 2 on the mic connector there should be a 22K 10W resistor (R62) which then leads to one side of the relay coil. Sometimes this resistor begins to go bad. If you can unsolder one lead of this resistor and measure the resistance across it and make sure it's on or near 22k.

Also check to make sure the wiring in the radio between that resistor and the mic connector isn't shorting against the chassis anywhere. Sometimes this wire can get hot (along with your mic cord wiring) if R62 begins to fail and drops in value, essentially forcing more current to flow on the mic side of that resistor. This can cause the insulation to melt and the wires (particularly on bends) to poke out and ground out on the chassis (GND).

This is pretty much the only way (short of a bad mic situation or a defective mic cord) that the transmitter could intermitently key on its own.


BTW ... the "bite" can happen from several things with a D104 on this radio. First, if you have RF in the shack from a feedline mismatch. That bite is RF energy getting right in your face, so-to speak. Check your VSWR. OR it can simply be that your safety grounding is not complete. If your radio still has a two prong AC plug, YOU MUST connect a ground wire to the ground lug on the back of the radio and connect that wire to either your AC household ground or a ground rod which is also bonded to your AC ground. Even if that means connecting the wire to the outside of an outlet box by connecting it to the center screw holding the receptacle cover on. (This is assuming your recepticles are "to code" and properly grounded).

While this last method is not ideal, if your recepticle box is properly grounded, this will surfice for a safety ground, bleeding off floating currents on the chassis. This may not be a good RF ground but it will provide an adequate safety ground. A side benifit is it may help lower a high side SWR issue (if you have one).


John, W2WDX

John (and others) Ive seen many people INDUCE more problems than fixed by replacing these 10-watt resistors with wire wound resistors instead of carbon or carbon film resistors. WIRE WOUND resistors are resistive inductors in radios, If you cant find the right values,in the wattages needed look up ohms laws on series and parallel resistances (wattage is increased by adding parallel resistance)

 

[nomadradio]

Makes me wonder if his mode selector switch was breaking down. That's one way to supply voltage to the transmit circuits without activating the relay.

Mostly we see other faults caused by the failed selector. Does seem vaguely possible, though.

We won't repair a Mark 3 SSB transmitter without either hot-wiring around that selector, or replacing it. Leaving the original switch in place is a game of russian roulette with only one chamber empty.

73