{"id":2903,"date":"2024-01-12T13:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T02:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2024\/01\/12\/qf-1-variable-capacitor-problem-what-should-i-do\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T18:01:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T08:01:42","slug":"qf-1-variable-capacitor-problem-what-should-i-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2024\/01\/12\/qf-1-variable-capacitor-problem-what-should-i-do\/","title":{"rendered":"QF-1 Variable Capacitor Problem &#8212; What Should I do?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"247\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AUQ3gxq8cwQ?si=dC8zMgHFNi-lrvXs?rel=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"440\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span face=\"Roboto, Noto, sans-serif\" style=\"background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;\"><b>For years I have been heartlessly slaughtering innocent Heathkit Q multipliers, just to get these variable capacitors. Dean KK4DAS has joined me in this mayhem. And recently Wes W4JYK has also started hunting down QF-1s. <\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<div><b><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><span face=\"Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222;\"><b>I am sorry to report that my love for this variable capacitor has taken a hit. The capacitance is perfect. And it has a reduction drive built into the shaft. But I have found that that reduction Drive has a form of backlash. It is really just a dead spot that you find when tuning in a signal. Turning in one direction, all is good. But when you then try to turn in the other direction, you have to turn the shaft a bit before the cap blades begins to move <\/b><\/span><b style=\"color: #222222;\">(see video above). <\/b><b style=\"color: #222222;\">This makes tuning SSB signals a bit difficult. <\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<div><b style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\"><br \/><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<div><span face=\"Roboto, Noto, sans-serif\" style=\"background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;\"><b>What should I do? Should I pull out a Dremel and cut off the reduction drive, then use a better (external) reduction drive to move the vanes? Any other ideas? <\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<div><b><span face=\"Roboto, Noto, sans-serif\" style=\"background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;\"><br \/><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<div><b><span face=\"Roboto, Noto, sans-serif\" style=\"background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;\">These are the kinds of problems that homebrewers face&#8230;<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><b> <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For years I have been heartlessly slaughtering innocent Heathkit Q multipliers, just to get these variable capacitors. Dean KK4DAS has joined me in this mayhem. And recently Wes W4JYK has also started hunting down QF-1s. I am sorry to report that my love for this variable capacitor has taken a hit. The capacitance is perfect. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2024\/01\/12\/qf-1-variable-capacitor-problem-what-should-i-do\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;QF-1 Variable Capacitor Problem &#8212; What Should I do?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15-10-transceiver","category-vfo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11247,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903\/revisions\/11247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}