...is holding up my bed.
Bruce, DOGRADIO
Its better with the Hammarlund than it would be with your crystal set.
Carl, I was trying to think of something
like that.
I don't think a "present day" radio with
92 knobs on the front would be as strong.
It's a shame really. This HQ-100 is in - what
would you say - poor to fair condition.
It would take a very good radio restoration
person to get it looking good and working.
I wish I knew how to do that, but I'm not that
good.
I was going to chuck it, but now it's serving
a purpose. It's too bad it has to be this
way, though.
The HQ-100 and it's variations and the
HQ-110 and it's various versions are more
economy radios - as opposed to the HQ-120,
HQ-145, and HQ-180, etc. The HQ-100 is
a genera; coverage receiver. The HQ-110 is
just for the ham bands. It seems that a
great many of the '100s and '110s are beat up
and have been slammed around.
Oh well. Another radio, another story.
Bruce, DOGRADIO
P.S. Many of these fine Hammarlund
receivers have very nice analog clocks
on the front panel. A beautiful looking
touch. This Hammarlund HQ-100 has a
hole in the front where the clock should
be. Maybe somebody has the clock in
a wooden case somewhere in their
livingroom.
Back when I had my novice ham ticket -- lets see, I was 11, so that would be 1969... I did a heck of a lot of contacts with an HQ-110. It was a step up from the Heathkit GR-81 that I built for that first station. Nowadays parents and consumer product safety would NEVER let an 11 year old kid solder together a radio! I love that Hammarlund! Truth be told, it's up in the attic someplace. Along with my home brew 25 watt, 2 tube 40/80 meter CW transmitter!
Tim in Bovey
Tim, you might not have heard this, but
a few others may have. I'll try to
not be boring.
I have a GR-81 over in the next room.
As a ham radio/SWL minimalist dude -
I use it for local AM radio, and listening
to 160, 80, amd 40 meters, WWV, CHU,
and a few other things. It's amazing what
that radio can hear - I've even gotten
longwave beacons. But, MAN, that's a
HARD radio for a Novice. The AC line voltage
changes from your transmitter must have
pulled the GR-81 tuning around. If not, I
guess the furnace or the fridge must have.
And building a 25 watt 80 and 40 transmitter at
11 or 12 years old... That's no small feat
either. Once you start getting up to
20 or 25 watts, you are starting to mess
around with some really serious voltages.
(Well - HV is HV, but still, you're starting to
get up there - I never built anything with
more than 350 volts, and that scared me to
death.)
I have a 3 watt 6AQ5 transmitter for 80 meters
that I have used with the GR-81. I haven't
had time lately, but a guy 100 miles away and
I had a blast for quite a few years. I used that
set-up and he had something similar.
The jump from the GR-81 to the HQ-110
must have blown you away! I'm sure the HQ-110
was great on the ham bands.
I had a Heathkit HR-10B and a
Johnson Viking Challenger in 1971. The
Viking had something wrong with
it. It ran REALLY HOT and sometimes
the crystal socket had sparks. (Dust?)
And it chirped like crazy. On 40 meters and
higher I just got lectures from hams who said
that if I didn't clean up my act I would get
an FCC violation. That's sort of took the
fun away. But 80 meters was OK.
The HR-10B drifted terribly, and the BFO
injection was way too low. CW sounded
scratchy and buzzy. Still - I have a great
love for that receiver. The original one
went away to help pay for college. But
now I have another one. I also finally
got a DX-60B. What a nice looking pair
of rigs.
I would be interested in knowing more
about that ham transmitter you built.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, DOGRADIO
I built the transmitter from plans in a book from the library. Two tubes a 12AT7 and a 6L6 hand wound coils inside one for 40 one for 80 wound on plastic pill bottles from the drug store. PI network output. After completion I couldn't get it to transmit a thing. Powered on, but no output. After scrutinizing the schematic vs the step by step instructions I discovered the schematic had a wire to a tube pin on it that the instructions never said to put in. Solved the problem. Used to tune it into a 40 watt lightbulb. At some point later in life I got another copy of the book and scanned all the instructions. I have it on a disk someplace around here. Had an aluminum chassis and I ordered nearly all the parts from Newark Electronics in Mpls. Had to send my Dad to their will-call desk to pick 'em up! Ahh.. the good ol' days! I was more of a builder than an operator, although made quite a few contacts. I hand drew all my QSL cards back then.
Tim inBovey