Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020
The 80-meter band appeared to have died again just prior to my 9 p.m. ET CW traffic net; tonight I was joined on the net by my Kentucky colleague, AD4DX. Willis and I were the only two check-ins on the net. Once the brief net was done, I dropped down to the Kentucky CW Net (KYN) and copied the mail. The sigs of my fellow Kentucky stations were up and down with deep fades; on my traffic net, I could only catch the occasional dit and dah from AD4DX; at least the KYN NCS was easier to copy.
ATTIC ARCHAEOLOGY. This afternoon I uncovered a National NCX-5 that I knew I had “somewhere” in the attic. I didn’t check the postmark, but it was an eBay purchase of at least 10 years ago. Without a power supply I couldn’t test the rig; its in fair shape, though some of the knobs took damage due to piss-poor packing. A couple of wraps of bubble wrap just weren’t enough protection for the front panel; several knobs were cracked and fell to pieces once the radio was on the bench. Otherwise the rig showed no damage and looks good inside.
My second find was a Hammarlund HQ-170, purchased about the same time as the National rig. This rig was packed with newspaper packing; thankfully — and despite the poor packing — the radio suffered no damage.
There’s a novice callsign engraved on the chassis, but no other ID. A homebrewed coil antenna was attached to the rear panel. I connected a speaker and jumpered the antenna terminal to my antenna system.
Due to my inexperience with the HQ-170, I thought the power “ON” switch was solely part of the RG gain pot; no, it also can be controlled by the clock mechanism, and in order for the rig to power on, you have to make sure you set the switch correctly on the clock. Once I found that, the dial lights lit up and meter came to life! Success! Or was it?
The clips I used for the speaker popped off, but I plugged in headphones and was greeted by an ear-splitting 60 Hertz hum. I shut the radio down and slid the case off (it arrived without screws securing it to the chassis). The 4-unit metal can that holds the main filter caps was surprisingly warm; given the loud AC hum, I think its safe to assume that the caps are either very leaky, shorted, or some combination of both.
Hayseed Hamfest offers a recap kit for the HQ-170 — includes the 4-section filter can as well as the rig’s other caps — and I think before I sell this radio I should replace the filter caps and see how it works. The radio looks quite pristine inside, and the HQ-170 is one of the best of the Hammarlund recieves (next to the HQ-170A and the HQ-180).
MORE TO COME. I put the NCX-5 on a shelf in Studio C, and I’m probably going to move the HQ-170 to the same shelving for the time being. I have several other radios to remove from the attic, including what I believe is a Hallicrafters SX-101A; a Yaesu FL-2100B amplifier; and some other as yet unidentified goodies.
I’m hoping the SX-101A operates OK and is a keeper; mostly because I really don’t cherish trying to ship the thing.
I’m just about down to the family junk we boxed up and put in the attic a couple of decades ago on the north end of the attic; I still have boxed and unidentified goodies to remain on the southern half. I also found a tall set of wire shelves unassembled in a box that I need to set up. I still plan to add a third table, an 8-footer, where I’ll set up my Hallicrafters twins — provided the SX-117 I have is workable.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z … SK …. SK … (dit dit) ….