[G4XWDJim]

Eddystone 888s seem to suffer commonly with this problem. I wonder if it's because each lower frequency band only covers a small amount like half a meg. I had the same problem many years ago with the two middle bands although I've forgotten exactly what the frequencies were and whether it was 888 or 888A.

I tried fitting silver micas of different values, even tiny variable ones to experiment and get the swept coverage correct. I lost interest and got fed up with it before I succeeded and moved it on.

The problem as I remember it was that the oscillator wouldn't change freqency enough from one end of a band to another. If the bandspread band covered say 500 kHz change from end to end the local oscillator had to change its frequency by the same amount albeit between two points eg 3.5 to 4.00mHz. I recall that it would only change by 460 kHz or something like that. I even began to think that some of the moving vanes on the oscillator tuning capacitor were making a bad connection and instead of varying between zero ish and 500 pf the maximum closed capacity was perhaps only 450 ish. At that time I didn't have an accurate capacitor measuring device and had better things to do with my life which was gradually ebbing away staring at Mr Eddystone.

I used a digital receiver to listen to the local oscillator which is a very easy way to get the end points spot on - on most receivers anyway. Even easier than a frequency counter apart from the mental maths involved.

I look forward to hearing the answer.

Jim