OK got my Etherwave put together and it sings, but I was going nuts trying to figure out why it had a zero beat with my hand a few inches from the pitch antenna, then went HIGHER again.
time to rtfm.
OK looks like I need to adjust the pitch circuit, finally something I know a little bit about - not the pitch circuit so much, but fiddling with those "pots".
Those are "slugs" of powdered iron, held together by a binder, that change the inductance of the coils. Inductance is something coils have, like capacitors have capacitance and resistors have resistance. The thing with tunable inductors is, though, that those slugs can be delicate, they can get broken by a metal screwdriver, and they can be broken or otherwise messed up by screwing them in too hard or out too far etc. Gentle is the word here.
Some slugs may have a little hex shaped hole in them, some may have a cross or streight screwdriver slot, manufacturers get their parts and often the type of hole in the slug changes as new stocks of parts are ordered.
If it's a screwdriver type streight slot, you're in luck if you're cheap, because you can whittle a nice little tool out of some suitable hard wood and be OK.
Otherwise you will need "alignment tools" which you can get at Radio Shack, Mouser, etc.
What the above poster said is true, this is not something to do when tired, hurried, impatient, had a brewski, etc.
As for me, right now I have every tool BUT an alignment tool (although a scope probe alignment tool may work and I think I have a few of those) so it's time for me to take a break and look at the situation tomorrow.
