Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020
For the past few days, eBay sales have been keeping me busy … a couple of Heil Classic mics, a National NCX-200 and a Hammarlund HQ-170. The Hammarlund is problematic; I think its one of the heaviest and largest receivers I’ve ever packed. I plan to finish packing it tomorrow, but basically I have had to construct a box in a box to provide sufficient support for its safe transport.
BROKEN BANDS. I’ve not been able to check into my 9 p.m. CW net twice in the past three nights. I could barely copy the NCS, and apparently, he couldn’t copy me tonight. The loudest check-in was in Lakeland, Fla., which is about 750 miles as the RF flies. All the other stations were much closer, which explains why they were so weak.
The band never did return to normal; I just checked the webSDR, and there are few signals across the phone portion of the band.
SB-102 VFO. The Heathkit SB-102 my son helped excavate from the basement is in pieces on my bench; the VFO was stuck, so I took the bezel off and found the works just … stuck. I can’t quite figure out how the VFO shaft pinches the edge of the dial to turn it. What I really need is the assembly manual, and I don’t have one. I need to see how the thing is supposed to be assembled. I really don’t want to take the front panel off the radio, though I think if I do, it’ll give me a clearer picture of what’s going on.
One thing I haven’t mentioned is that I found a small nut jamming the VFO dial. Not sure where it belongs yet, but again, I may need to bite the bullet and remove the front face of the radio.
Sad to report that this SB-102 isn’t equipped with a CW filter. It does have the switching setup, just no filter was ever installed. Drat.
I really needed that CW filter over the weekend, too. I have an older MFJ signal enhancer (MFJ-752), and I’ve not had much luck with it. It just doesn’t seem to work very well on CW. I have been spoiled by the Datong line of audio filters; those are superb performers. I have an FL-3 in the shack that I run with my Heathkit HW-16; I believe I have an FL-2 or another FL-3 in the shack. If I could only find either one, I would have my filtering issues solved.
I had considered getting the modern MFJ DSP outboard unit, or an Autek QF-1 audio filter; but I hate to buy equipment when I have some here that I can use — if I can find it.
I have a Heathkit HD-1418A audio filter, and its just about the equal of the Datong gear. Problem is that I can’t find the HD-1418A either. I have located my Heathkit HD-8999 Ultrapro CW keyboard; however, the keyboard takes an oddball power connector, a 2-pin molex connector that isn’t very common. I was lucky to find one on eBay, however. I also have a couple of MFJ 496 CW keyboards, still needing excavation in the shack.
On a whim, I sniped an audio filter I’ve never seen before — a Daiwa AF-306 active filter. The unit has a row of switches designed to reduce the bandwidth, three setting son SSB and three on CW. We’ll see how it works when it gets here. In the meantime, I’m keeping my eye on a Heathkit CW filter with an auction ending in the next 24 hours or so.
Enough rambling for now … 73 es CUL … de KY4Z … SK … SK … (dit dit) …