[462ron]

Hi John, I got to thinking that the reason the alignment went way off on the 3rd RF tank circuit could be that in the original factory version if you look both the tuning cap and the cold end of the transformer went to chassis ground, basically the two were in parallel. In my modification, tuning cap still had a chassis ground but now the transformer cold end only has an RF ground through that 100 pf cap, so now the tuning cap is in series with the 100 pf, throwing resonance out of whack. I redid my mod by putting back the ground to the cold end of the transformer thus restoring the original configuration. Then I ungrounded the cathode of the 1N34, and attached it to the 27K/390K divider. That brought the alignment much closer to where it was before. Still, the audio is weaker than the factory design and no real improvement in distortion. I did experiment with changing the original 25V supply to the 200A and found it actually sounded better by going lower, even works down to 9V. Next time I get to working on it I’m going to use your suggestion of swapping out the gas tube for a 01A. If that doesn’t cut it, I may just return it to factory design and call it a day! Thanks for your interest and suggestions.

Ron