The Clansman PRC344 is now probably as good, electrically, as it will get.
Having removed the Direct Current Amplifier module3, in order to disable the radios ability to transmit (since there is absolutely no legal way of using the transmitter, yet lots of ways to inadvertently send a signal that at best could get you prosecuted and at worse endanger an aircraft!), I could happily ignore all the alignment process relating to the transmitter.
So this evening I took the time to run through the alignment processes for the power supplies and the receiver. The only part of this that gave any problem was the AGC alignment. This required setting one control for 350mV peak waveform on the oscilloscope, and 0v on the voltmeter. However, although I could hear the receiver being affected by the adjustments, I couldnt get anything like the specified waveform levels!
*I have now realised that I was monitoring for the 0v on the wrong test point! It may be that I have to do this section again sometime!
But, the radio does now seem to be performing as specified. One downside to this being that with the mute setting as per the manual of -108dBm, the background level of QRM within my QTH is enough on many channels to open the mute!
The final test required, ive just completed. This is rather a frivolous aspect, but I wanted it to work, so ive tested the REMOTE and I/C settings using a Remote Handset and a few meters of DON10 telephone wire. But, with this working, it means that I could stick the radio up on the workshop roof and run telephone wire into my warm comfortable work position to monitor while I get on with something else.
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