Regency Imperial tuning info needed

[brownbomber72]

Since I was not able to find a owners manual online I need to know which pots to turn to peak my power output. Right now it is keying 1 watt and swinging up to 4-5 watts. With the radio sitting in front of me it has one adjustment on the right side and three on the left.

[Sandbagger]

Mar 23, 2021 19:57:38 GMT -5 brownbomber72 said:

Since I was not able to find a owners manual online I need to know which pots to turn to peak my power output. Right now it is keying 1 watt and swinging up to 4-5 watts. With the radio sitting in front of me it has one adjustment on the right side and three on the left.

The Regency Imperial is a unique design for a CB radio. It not only has fully suppressed double sideband capability, but the AM employs what is known as "reduced" carrier transmit. It's a legitimate implementation of what people mod radios now to do - low dead key with massive swing. The Imperial is designed to put out between 1.5 and 2 watts dead key, but will swing to somewhere around 8 - 10 watts PEP. This makes for a very loud and punchy transmit signal. And it mates up with a typical amplifier almost perfectly. Make sure you peak the final control on the front panel for max power. Replacing weak tubes might give you a little more output, but don't expect more than about 2 watts of carrier.

[brownbomber72]

Thanks for the info. I have adjusted the final control on the front and 1 watt deadkey is all I can get. But it is for sure not swinging up to 8-10 watts. All tubes do test good.

[Sandbagger]

Mar 24, 2021 19:06:03 GMT -5 brownbomber72 said:

Thanks for the info. I have adjusted the final control on the front and 1 watt deadkey is all I can get. But it is for sure not swinging up to 8-10 watts. All tubes do test good.

It all depends on what type of wattmeter you have. An average reading meter, or a "peak" reading meter that isn't powered by a battery or external power source, will not show the true PEP power level. A 4 or 5 watt swing on an average reading meter may very well be 10 watts or more on a true peak reading meter.

[narfedwards2]

If it any help at all I just did over a nice Imperial and I get about the same results with lotsa tube swapping etc.I too ask myself where is the elusive 12-20W I hear about.I measure pep on digital unit once saw 6 W...but the guys across town say its louder than most others theyve heard..thisone I pulled ond crystal and added 37-40 .I use it for LSB 27.385.I had to add a var.cap on the crystal to dial in transmit frequency and it worked out well..great for ragchews

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[White Falcon (george1955)]

A few years ago - I bopught an Imperial II and he gave me a couple of crystals and told me they wer for upper channles - they are 11.25 mhz and 11.30. Do you know what channels they are for and what position in the synth the belong in? also what channels do you give up. I understood from another thread or forum that it replaced 1-4 positions
I also have a Sitroniox VFP#5 which is the correct one for Regency - I was intending to use it with one of my Imperials that have dead channels.

Can you direct me where to look?
TIA
George - Long Island NY

[bobcat4109]

I hope that expands in your browser when you click on it.

What this table is INTENDED to show......

In the crystal synthesizer on that radio the lowest 4 channels on the selector are created by a mix of  a 11.850 Mhz  crystal (M10) and  one of M11,M12,M13 or M14 with a 7.5 Mhz (M16) in the 2nd transmit oscillator.  So the M10 column shows you what frequency you get with the nominal M10 crystal in place for each of the 4 channel positions.

While there are a number of ways you could do this... for simplicity of the demonstration...  I am saying... IF you replace M10 with the 11.25 Mhz crystal you will get the 4 frequencies below.
IF you were to replace M10 with the 11.30 Mhz crystal you will get the 4 frequencies below that header.

I hope this helps.. and again, I SURE hope that image swells up when you select it.   The image was huge on my screen when I captured it.

I will try after I complete this posting and, if it doesn't work, I'll try something else.

Bob

[White Falcon (george1955)]

Great info. I’m repairing a few radios.
Waiting on a few caps for a Johnson bad.. (223) and just repaired a regency cr-142.
Next up. Your chart did expand and I saved it. Now just have to decide which imperial I want to test this on.
Thanks so much for that info!!

[bobcat4109]

You are absolutely welcome.  It was my pleasure.

[White Falcon (george1955)]

Alright - So I do have an Imperial II that had a crystal changed and its equpped with 36 37 38 and seems like 40 but on a frquency counter they read out 27.336 / 27.376 / 27.386 and 27.406 - so it's off
those channels are supposed to be 27.365 / 27.375 / 27.385 and a skip to 27.405

so those are off a bit - the rest work but are by more by the time it gets to 20 its 27.199 vs 27.205 - that's a lot

Then there's an Imperial one - all stock That's off as well on every channel
ch 1 is 26.9639 - should be 26.965

up on 21 , it's 27.21442 and should be 27.215

Worse yet - the channel 21 position receives Channel 19 and the two indermediary crystal are in he right spots

Here's another Beaut. All 23 Channels work as described but I tested the 6an8 in the cage. It's a dual tube and one side has higher emissions than the other. So I found a 6AN8 that tested equally on both sides and I lost the channel 21 and some of the lowers - put the old tube back and i got it back.

so something is weird and it's very sensitive.
sad that these are so old that anyone expert on them is either too old and can't be bothered or has moved on to the afterlife

[techwreck]

The off frequency operation and the oscillator working with this tube--and not with that one, are signs of crystals which are low activity, and have drifted considerably.  Replacement is the only real option, unless you go with a VFO. I have an Imperial II, that I purchased new in 1973, that was equipped with a homebuilt VFO. This worked well, but I should point out, that this radio is very "tight" on bandwidth. You can't go far from Ch 1 or 23...before there is a noticeable drop in power output, and receive sensitivity.  Otherwise, it was a good performer. It appears that the Olson "Sidebander", was a rebranded Imperial, with a few mainly cosmetic changes...so, the alignment info should be similar. The Regency Range Gain is basically an Imperial, without the option for sideband...so that might help.

[White Falcon (george1955)]

Mar 25, 2021 18:45:25 GMT -5 narfedwards2 said:

If it any help at all I just did over a nice Imperial and I get about the same results with lotsa tube swapping etc.I too ask myself where is the elusive 12-20W I hear about.I measure pep on digital unit once saw 6 W...but the guys across town say its louder than most others theyve heard..thisone I pulled ond crystal and added 37-40 .I use it for LSB 27.385.I had to add a var.cap on the crystal to dial in transmit frequency and it worked out well..great for ragchews

Hi - Would you mind much telling me where you connected the variable cap and what value and type?
I just picked up a nice clean Range Gain II to add to my Imperial collection.

One thing i did figure out is that the way the 6AN8 in the synthesizer behaves - channels can cut in and out. I swapped one that read higher on my tube tester and I lost a few channells - swapped the weaker/older one back in and those same channels came right back.