President Lincoln II+ V3 AM Choppy Squelch Issue

[Tom Line]

Got the radio back. AM squelch is still crap. Have to set it to zero all the time.
Maybe the engineer's need to get out of the lab once in a while and explore the real world.

At the Cincinnati machine shop, the engineer's offices were on the 2nd story of the machine shop. The boss came in at night and had the guys lower the offices to the 1st floor so the engineers might get a frigging clue.

 

[ForestRunner98]

Hmm…I was thinking…does RF gain affect when the squelch open up? If gain is at max then squelch opens easier?

 

[Tom Line]

Hmm…I was thinking…does RF gain affect when the squelch open up? If gain is at max then squelch opens easier?

Gain definitely does affect what's fed to squelch, for sure. There are several settings as well in the engineering menus the company will provide no information about. This information would be very helpful.

 

[Tom Line]

ASC was set wrong in the engineering menu. No choppy squelch any more. Get static like I should until squelch is raised to to like 3 or 4. Two trips to support and they could not or would not figure it out and resolve it or even give me documentation about the menus to help me out. Not much of a support group. Nice radio though.
Thanks everybody here for being open minded, objective and helpful with me in figuring this out..!!!

 

[ForestRunner98]

So you’re all good now? ASC works like it should? Sounds like it!!

Ya man it sucks that President didn’t help. Even some info about the engineering section would have been good. Hmm…you’re using it on 11m? Maybe they didn’t like that.

 

[Dr_DX]

ASC was set wrong in the engineering menu. No choppy squelch any more. Get static like I should until squelch is raised to to like 3 or 4. Two trips to support and they could not or would not figure it out and resolve it or even give me documentation about the menus to help me out. Not much of a support group. Nice radio though.
Thanks everybody here for being open minded, objective and helpful with me in figuring this out..!!!

I had mentioned earlier that it was the ASC.

So please share.

What was the original values in the Service menu for :

ASCON-
ASCOFF-
ASC-

and what did you change them too ?

Thanks!

 

[Tom Line]

I had mentioned earlier that it was the ASC.

So please share.

What was the original values in the Service menu for :

ASCON-
ASCOFF-
ASC-

and what did you change them too ?

Thanks!

I don't recommend anybody try changing these, but I had exhausted all proper efforts so had nothing to lose. I'll try to post a list of them. I think they should vary from rig to rig.

Initially fiddled with what looked like squelch settings for Db1,3,5,7,9,12 but they made no difference in resolving the AM flapping/choppy/dead squelch issue. I noticed that the mode indicator always changes to FM when viewing db squelch settings. Proper way to set them is obviously with a signal generator and proper shop. I was able to modify squelch settings by adjusting the RF gain knob while just hooked to an antenna, and hitting the burn button. "band" burns them to memory. To get the higher 12db levels, I had to key an adjacent rig on channel 40 to get enough RF in the air. Messy but worked good for me. Couldn't always hit the exact original number, but could get real close. Low numbers are most difficult to get and the burn would say "error". Easy to undershoot.

Giving up on squelch, I tried ASC. The RF gain works in reverse rotation when adjusting for the level. I randomly tried a level kind of in the middle, and to my surprise it worked. Number was way different. Will post it. Could not hit the original number, but it didn't work anyway.

There are settings in there to adjust main and perhaps individual BFOs and other things. I fortunately have an RTL-SDR and am able to visually see that mine was spot on frequency.
A friend tried changing ASC, as well as ASCon and ASCoff, and we suspect the latter affect how the tuning knob reacting to moving it up/down. I didn't have to change mine. Mine grabs and releases squelch differently when moving it up and down, but I'm good with that.

Lowest menu items can't be modified, but seem to be for setup, as the freqs listed in those menu items seem to be close to, but definitely different than the transmit frequencies; high, medium, low band, if one keys the mic while at those items. Maybe they screw driver tune these first, then use software to final adjust the mixer frequencies.

Lot of work for a band I only listen to. Good guys on this forum.

 

[Tom Line]

Changing my ASC from 437 to 756 resolved AM choppy dead squelch issue.
menu item/display/value
12 27.405 ASCon 80
13 27.405 ASCoFF 121
14 27.405 ASC 756**(at 437,had choppy dead squelch in AM, side band was okay)

 

[Tom Line]

personal notes... I'm just a hack so don't burn up your rig based on my notes.

My Lincoln II+ (not for other models, or versions, or yours)

DO NOT PRESS "BAND" BUTTON, IT WILL BURN
CURRENT Rx SIGNAL LEVEL TO MEMORY!!"

DO NOT PERFORM ANY MODIFICATIONS OUTSIDE
A SHOP WITHOUT THE PROPER EQUIPMENT AND
FACTORY DOCUMENTATION!! DON'T BE "THAT GUY"

This requires signal generator and test
equipment to modify properly.
Write down any settings before modification.

Some items are adjusted by rotating selector switch.
Others such as s9 are adjusted by varying signal
generator level as well as RF gain knob and pushing
the "band" button, a.k.a "The BURN Button" !!!

Nothing In These Menus Will Increase RF Output Power

My settings are here for ONE radio, others rigs will vary.
Menu Disp Function Difference
1
24.715 none Transmits on 24.775 0.06 +760kz difference

2
27.41 none Transmits on 27.430 0.02 +20kz difference

3
30.105 none Transmits on 32.86475 2.76 +2.7 mhz difference

4
27.410 Fr9 am 495
27.410 Fr9 fm 495 change in one mode
27.410 Fr9 usb 495 changes in all modes
27.410 Fr9 lsb 495 all transmit on 27.430
27.410 Fr9 cw 495

5
27.410 Fr9oFF
am no value
fm no value (all transmit on 27.430)
usb no value
lsb no value
cw no value

6
27.410
bFo-Am am 537
fBo-Fm fm 537 mode button cycles through
bFo-U5b usb 823 different values
bFo-L5b lsb 317 (all transmit on 27.430)
bFo-Cw cw 536

7
Arr <--- any guess what this stands for ???
Arr am
Arr fm 520 select any mode
Arr usb switches to FM
Arr lsb
Arr cw

8
27.41
CtCS fm 041 select any mode switches to fm

9
27.410
dCS fm 029 select any mode switches to fm

10
27.405
S9UL-01 10
S9UL-03 22
S9UL-05 172 selecting any mode
S9UL-07 544 switches to USB
S9UL-09 599
S9UL-12 881

11
27.405
S9FA-01 39
S9FA-03 204
S9FA-05 724 select any mode
S9FA-07 858 switches to fm
S9FA-09 885
S9FA-12 948

12
27.405 ASCon 80

13
27.405 ASCoFF 121

14
27.405 ASC 756**(at 437,had choppy dead squelch)

15
27.410 rSSlts 328 rX signal strength???? Not sure

16
27.410 RED

17
27.410 GREEN

18
27.410 BLUE

DISCLAIMER: DON'T CHANGE YOUR RIG OUTSIDE A PROPER SHOP

 

[Tom Line]

Adjusted Upper side band frequency with the engineering menu last night. Report said my signal was 50 hz low. Lowered the value of FM mode in menu 6 by from 823 to 813, and it raised my signal by 50 hz. Got good signal reports Ohio to New York after that and was able to turn off my clarifier.

 

[Wayfarer]

Adjusted Upper side band frequency with the engineering menu last night. Report said my signal was 50 hz low. Lowered the value of FM mode in menu 6 by from 823 to 813, and it raised my signal by 50 hz. Got good signal reports Ohio to New York after that and was able to turn off my clarifier.

The engineering menu is easy to use to adjust the frequency. I got my Lincoln right on the money using a 1 kHz test tone sent through the mic circuit and monitoring the signal on a Flex radio with TCXO calibrated with WWV. The Lincoln is very stable on frequency never off by more than 50Hz from startup and once warm, +/- less than 10 Hz. It's an excellent SSB radio.

 

[Dr_DX]

Adjusted Upper side band frequency with the engineering menu last night. Report said my signal was 50 hz low. Lowered the value of FM mode in menu 6 by from 823 to 813, and it raised my signal by 50 hz. Got good signal reports Ohio to New York after that and was able to turn off my clarifier.

With both USB and FM 50hz low, sounds like you could have adjusted menu # 4 and brought everything up by 50hz with a single adjustment. Unless the other modes were spot on.

P.S. you always want to turn your clarifier off before making freq. adjustments so it doesn't influence the transmitted signal.

 

[Tom Line]

Sorry, I adjusted BFO for USB. I just wrote the wrong mode in the post.

With both USB and FM 50hz low, sounds like you could have adjusted menu # 4 and brought everything up by 50hz with a single adjustment. Unless the other modes were spot on.

P.S. you always want to turn your clarifier off before making freq. adjustments so it doesn't influence the transmitted signal.

I'm with you on that. So I checked the other modes, and they seemed spot on. When I monitor regular AM with an RTL-SDR, I see carriers drifted all over the place, but the guys still sound good. Seems most critical in side band for sure.

 

[Tom Line]

Found another radio: " CRT 7900 " that has a very simliar engineering mode hidden menu like the Lincoln II+ does.

 

[JasonD239]

I picked one of these up with shorted mosfets. I did the repair and the radio had inferior transmit audio sound on test reports. I then did the NCP mod and the audio quality reports were good and was told it was a night and day difference..
Moving forward a week I have noticed the squelch and rf gain on this radio are garbage and my google search confirmed my problems. I'm not a full time radio tech with a room full of test equipment to set levels and re-burn the correct values into memory. One thing i have noticed is ssb squelch seems to function alot better then AM/FM. AM/FM is choppy no matter what. I use AM alot and the squelch problem is enough for me to put it back in the box and up on ebay it goes and back to the 5555v6

Ohh and this one is the newest revision to my knowledge. The box has the "Vox built in" logo on it