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Oh dear. Got myself a McKinley EU, need some advice.

M0GVZ

Sr. Member
Oct 18, 2011
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Got a brand new President McKinley from Knights CB here in the UK. Had it widebanded so I could use it on 10m. Decided to check the power outputs today using my MFJ 993 and a dummy load.

On AM it would appear to have "backwards swing" so you key up with no audio and the S meter on the McKinley pegs to the right and as you talk the meter drops. The meter on the 993 shows just short of 15W when keying up and actually goes backwards as you talk. Monitoring on another CB radio and playing a tone so I can use a fixed audio level every time I play the tone the S meter on the receiving CB drops and the power measured on the 993 drops to about 6/7 watts so to me it's definitely negative modulation. If I drop the RF power down to it's minimum setting on the McKinley it works as it should other than the meter being on S7 with no audio but everything goes the right way as you talk.

Now this thing to me is screaming it's nuts off. It's a "deadkey" of 14W on AM, it's doing 27W on FM, it's doing 25/26W playing a two tone test signal into the mic on SSB. Talking to my first contact on it on SSB to someone who is about 20 miles from me they asked if I was using a power mike when I told them what radio I was using...

As those who use Knights know they checks every single radio on the bench before they give you it, me somewhat naively assuming its so they're doing 4W, 100% modulation and 2.5kHz deviation and not the 3.5W, 80% mod and 1.8kHz deviation pretty much all radios tend to come out of the box with here in the EU. Is the backwards swing due to them setting the AM carrier level being set too high? I'm kind of concerned that they're cranking everything up to 11 to keep the idiots happy which is not what I want. I do know that when you do the export mod it does up the power but it's supposed to be to about 20W.
 

The irony is that the shop who've done this have put their own warranty seals on after doing the wideband mod and I'm going to have to break them to sort it out.

Is it just a case of cranking down the AM High Power adjustment? This is an image with all the adjustments on the EU version...

McKinley%2BAdjustments%2BDelboy%2B1.jpg
 
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No idea.
Set AM carrier to 4W and check. If it still modulate backwards, it's a bad tune.
Anyway, having radio opened and no warranty, I would do NPC-RC and RWOB on that junk :)
Mike
 
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I've been tempted to try one of those for a review. Deadkey of 14 watts is at the high end for a dual final radio - likely that is what is causing the problem if it isn't doing it at lower power levels. I would never run my dual final radio at a deadkey that high - I'd set it for 8 watts or so and just roll from there.

I once got a HR2510 back from a guy famous for tuning them and the deadkey was set at 20 watts! So even the best sometimes do weird stuff.
 
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I would call them and ask them about it, maybe they will make it right?

I think the menu setting might be able to lower the carrier. Here is a section of the manual that I have attached:

RF POWER (combination 12 / 9 + 5) In TX mode, increase/decrease the output power. - Press and hold the PTT switch (12). - Press the • (9) and CH (5) buttons. «RF POWER» is displayed. - Turn the rotary CH knob (5) to adjust the level using the bargraph. - Press the CH knob (5) for 1 second to confirm the setting.

Hope this helps.
Chris
 

Attachments

  • mckinley4languespolv1.02bd-281.pdf
    2.1 MB · Views: 30
Yeah if I reduce the power as you described Shadetree I have to drop it right down to the minimum and then it starts to work as expected and the meters go the right way.

I got hold of the service manual and had a look at the transmitter alignment section. It's screaming it's nuts off as I expected. In Export mode it should be calibrated to 10W AM with no modulation, FM 20W with no modulation, SSB 24W with two tone signal.

It's got the warranty stickers on that the shop put on and I've not opened it up yet. I have the equipment and ability to put it right which is the annoying part and I could do it right now in about 10 minutes but I'm not going to screw up the warranty and do it without their agreement. Going to make a phone call to them tomorrow.
 
So moving on. The only thing the shop adjust is the FM deviation which is understandable as EU limit in most countries is 2KHz, manufacturers typically set them to 1.5-1.8kHz to ensure they're legal but the UK limit is 2.5kHz so you'd sound quite quiet to everyone else if it wasn't increased. I have another two CBs I'd got from them a couple of years ago for a road trip, CRT MIke and Albrecht AE-6110, and they're working exactly how you'd expect on AM so if there was any carrier tweaking going on at the shop I'd have expected those to have been done also.

He told me to drop him an email and he'll check another one when he sells one that someone wants widebanding and see if it's the same.

Everything has been wound down so FM is now at 20W where it's supposed to be. Can't get AM carrier below 10W with the AM HP adjustment though, once the AM High Power adjustment pot goes past the central position it starts to rise again. AM still backwards needle until I adjust the power to minimum in the menu which is 6.8W. However interestingly it only really goes backwards the most on lower frequency audio on full power, if I use a high pitch tone into it it goes forward.

Sounds absolutely fine though on AM monitoring it on another radio, nice and clear, no distortion at all, not overly loud with the mike gain up full so I'm not sure whether the comments about it sounding like I was using a power mike had any validity or not. It's spot on frequency at least to within an accuracy of 10Hz resolution I'm currently able to measure since my Marconi 2955 finally died so no longer able to do down to a single Hz, and amateurs I've spoken to on 10m USB have sounded fine with the clarifier in the mid position.

I've read a few posts on various forums about how President's QC isn't always the best it could be so I'll put that it was screaming it's nuts off down to that than any active adjustment by the shop. Pots weren't all wound round to the end stops but there were enough to do with the high power settings in the same "3 o'clock" position to make me suspect somebody didn't give much of a toss when setting it up. Both AM and FM High Power needed backing off nearly 1/4 of a turn. Given that the High Power settings are described in the service manual as being for "RU" or Russia mode the manufacturers probably don't care because they know the Ruskies are like those on the Superbowl channel, want them maxed out and don't give a stuff what they sound like as long as it's loud so just wind the pots for high power adjustment to full and back them off a little.

I hardly use AM so it's not the end of the world, at least I know it's not sounding like a distorted overdriven shitbox and people can hear me and understand me. It was more where it was with the FM that was concerning me as in the UK that's used a lot. So for now I think I'll leave it where I've got it and see if Knights find it's the same on another. If it's 10W deadkey and only capable of around 20-25W PEP then it will work the way it currently is.

Other than that, cracking little radio, sounds lovely both on transmit and receive.
 
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So moving on. The only thing the shop adjust is the FM deviation which is understandable as EU limit in most countries is 2KHz, manufacturers typically set them to 1.5-1.8kHz to ensure they're legal but the UK limit is 2.5kHz so you'd sound quite quiet to everyone else if it wasn't increased. I have another two CBs I'd got from them a couple of years ago for a road trip, CRT MIke and Albrecht AE-6110, and they're working exactly how you'd expect on AM so if there was any carrier tweaking going on at the shop I'd have expected those to have been done also.

He told me to drop him an email and he'll check another one when he sells one that someone wants widebanding and see if it's the same.

Everything has been wound down so FM is now at 20W where it's supposed to be. Can't get AM carrier below 10W with the AM HP adjustment though, once the AM High Power adjustment pot goes past the central position it starts to rise again. AM still backwards needle until I adjust the power to minimum in the menu which is 6.8W. However interestingly it only really goes backwards the most on lower frequency audio on full power, if I use a high pitch tone into it it goes forward.

Sounds absolutely fine though on AM monitoring it on another radio, nice and clear, no distortion at all, not overly loud with the mike gain up full so I'm not sure whether the comments about it sounding like I was using a power mike had any validity or not. It's spot on frequency at least to within an accuracy of 10Hz resolution I'm currently able to measure since my Marconi 2955 finally died so no longer able to do down to a single Hz, and amateurs I've spoken to on 10m USB have sounded fine with the clarifier in the mid position.

I've read a few posts on various forums about how President's QC isn't always the best it could be so I'll put that it was screaming it's nuts off down to that than any active adjustment by the shop. Pots weren't all wound round to the end stops but there were enough to do with the high power settings in the same "3 o'clock" position to make me suspect somebody didn't give much of a toss when setting it up. Both AM and FM High Power needed backing off nearly 1/4 of a turn. Given that the High Power settings are described in the service manual as being for "RU" or Russia mode the manufacturers probably don't care because they know the Ruskies are like those on the Superbowl channel, want them maxed out and don't give a stuff what they sound like as long as it's loud so just wind the pots for high power adjustment to full and back them off a little.

I hardly use AM so it's not the end of the world, at least I know it's not sounding like a distorted overdriven shitbox and people can hear me and understand me. It was more where it was with the FM that was concerning me as in the UK that's used a lot. So for now I think I'll leave it where I've got it and see if Knights find it's the same on another. If it's 10W deadkey and only capable of around 20-25W PEP then it will work the way it currently is.

Other than that, cracking little radio, sounds lovely both on transmit and receive.


To go a little sideways, why the McKinley and not the Lincoln (either being a nice choice)?

.
 
Refer back to your graphic you sent about the "adjustments" layout on that board.

There are several things that can go wrong - referring back to the Anytone tryout the (former) Boss showed us.

One main issue is the "calibration" of the unit - so the one adjust for say "max" is properly aligned to "max" on the sensor side of the CPU - President has been using DAC/ADC piping thru those processors for proper envelope control at all times and conditions.

upload_2020-7-10_17-56-57.png

That's just an AM modulator...Note the "trimmer" - it's similar in action to the Galaxy approach to Envelope control when you use RF power, you can over crank the Modulation on low power - but fuzz up and disappear in high power settings - the two DAC's pipe their levels in thru their respective places and they work in unison to keep the envelope controlled.

So if the "calibration of the physical adjustment is off to the pre-programmed slope of operation envelope control - the thing will work like a turd or trumpet like a swan.

This is also why you have to be careful of the physical mods, for the built in defenses it has, can shut down the radio making it unusable until it gets fixed and recalibrated again.
 
To go a little sideways, why the McKinley and not the Lincoln (either being a nice choice)?

.
I've used Lincolns in the past - got a dog of one brought in and realigned it to factory and managed to make a 4000 mile QSO with it which I put on Youtube.

Basically it boils down to two things:

1) The fact I'm lazy and the McKinley has the UK FM band and keeps that even in export mode so I can press a button and I've got the 40 channels ending in the UK's 27x.xx1.25MHz which makes life simpler.

2) Lincolns are fetching really really silly money here at the moment. There have been unboxed ones with unknown history and potentially a couple of decades worth of golden screwdrivering going for as much as £200, only £50 less than a brand new McKinley with a 2 year warranty.
 
May I ask why you bought that radio, given something like a CRT/Anytone/Alinco multi mode radio does everything it does and more, for less dosh ? I have never really understood why people spend more money on a radio that does less, similar story with President Grant 2.

I was sold on a CRT 9900 after this German in depth technical testing video, this guy knows his stuff, specs are high for its price. (including spurious and harmonics) My only suggestion to improve it is a 40mm fan on the rear heatsink, I just super glued one on and it is cool as a cucumber even at full pelt radio power only on SSB. (12v battery powered)



My only 2 minor complaints about the radio is the S meter sits at S1 for 1 second before going S0 on a clear channel and the VFO decimal selector digits flash slowly after pressing the dial (the moment you click the VFO knob the digit disappears for 1/2 second, silly design choice) meaning when QSYing, you have to wait for it show the digit before being sure you are on the right digit, meaning QSY is a bit slower, which is NEVER good. I have the hang of it now after some hours of use.

Other than that it is a great radio.
 
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