Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020
The band has been broken the last couple of nights trying to check in on my CW traffic net at 9 p.m. local time. Seems like several nights, thanks apparently to solar activity, the band has gone very long; instead of copying the usual roundtables on 80 phone from the south and southeastern U.S., I’ve been copying stations in the much farther west, north and northeast.
A couple of nights ago, I didn’t hear a single dit from any of the stations on the traffic net, which is rare. Most of the time, even when the band is long, I can copy at least one of the stations.
Now add to the mix of whack-a-doodle propagation was my decision to try a new rig — a Heathkit HW-99 CW transceiver.
I picked up the HW-99 early this year, but never put the rig on the air. The rig is very clean and operates … well, it operates like most every other HW-99.
One of the issues all of these radios seem to have is that their VFOs don’t track well. Since my CW net is less than 50 kHz from the bottom of the band, judging from my research I expected the dial to be “off” … maybe 5 or 7 kHz.
The first night I tried the radio, I couldn’t copy anyone on the traffic net; not a single damn signal. I finally fired up my antenna analyzer to insure the HW-99 was receiving properly. I found that it was receiving just fine; however, the dial was more than 25 kHz off! Wow!
Armed with that information, I was successful the next night when I tried to find the net; unfortunately, the NCS was unable to hear my calls. From my initial checks against my Tempo 2020, the HW-99 seems to be receiving and transmitting on the correct frequencies, though I have not doublechecked that. I’m thinking that it it wasn’t propagation, the issue may be that the transmit offset is wrong. And since the HW-99 doesn’t have an RIT, it complicates trying to be “on frequency.”
And true to the “drifty” reputation of the HW-99, the rig’s drift from a cold start is significant. You can hear the drift as the rig warms up. But from what I can tell, after a 30-minute warm-up, the HW-99 seems fairly stable. I have a frequency counter and need to compare the receive and transmit frequencies to make sure the rig is transmitting a frequency someone can hear.
A NEW OLD RIG. Don’t ask me why, but I got a wild hair a couple of weeks ago on eBay, and picked up a cheaply priced Yaesu FT-77 transceiver. I’ve read the reviews, which are all favorable. The radio is a simpler version of the FT-757GX and shares the same knobs, display and other features.
The radio arrived today, and I was anxious to try it out. I had to exercise the switches before the receiver came to life. The radio receiver came to life, and in my testing, a few problems surfaced.
The display is off, about 500 Hz from what I can guess. The radio’s internal speaker is trashed; it sounds horrible! When I connected an external speaker, the receiver really came to life. I was surprised at how nice the radio sounded; the signals on 20 meters seemed low to me; there’s no preamp button on this rig like the FT-757GX. The radio seemed very stable.
The bad news was on transmit, there was no output. Not even a flicker. Now the pots and switches all seemed really dirty, and until I clean the pots and switches, I’m not yet convinced the lack of transmit signal isn’t a dirty contact problem.
The squelch/RF gain control seems to be inoperative too. The factory hand mike up/down buttons don’t function, but those too may be due to dirty contacts.
The radio has a small removable panel on top with VOX and other adjustments; the snap button doesn’t hold it secure, so the previous owner used duct tape to hold it in place. The radio appears to have been stored for a decade or more, judging from how the duct tape had aged.
I can live without the RF Gain/Squelch control if I could only get the rig to transmit. Again, my next chore will be to remove the case and clean all of the switches and controls. I don’t think the lack of a transmit signal is due to a dirty contact, but you never know.
SB-102 WAITING IN THE WINGS. The Heathkit SB-102 that I purchased a few weeks ago that’s been restored and refurbished is still in the box awaiting my box cutter and set up in Studio C. This rig doesn’t have a CW filter installed, but I have one to install now. I bought it originally for the SB-102 I’ve been operating, switching between it and the Tempo 2020. But I’ll save the filter for what I assume will be the better rig.
Tonight I checked in to the net with my old reliable Tempo 2020. I really enjoy the rig and the matching VFO; I listen to my 75-meter roundtable guys on the main VFO and then tune the CW traffic net on the external VFO.
I still have a third SB-102 on the bench that I had to repair the VFO dial mechanism. Its fixed and all I need now it so put the radio back in the case and try it out. I’ve never had this rig powered up. One of the problems I found in this radio was that the electrolytic cap on the audio board — the one that stands up — was hanging loose. On closer inspection, I found that the positive leg of the cap was never soldered! It was just lose, never making contact. I don’t know what affect that had with the radio’s operation; I replaced the cap thinking the lead was broken.
I’ve got several surplus SB-102s at this point, plus a very nice HW-101 that transmits gangbusters but doesn’t receive. I need to finish looking this rigs over and get them on down the road. I haven’t sold much of anything on eBay for a couple of months.
KEY UPDATE. I’m back to using a bug fulltime in Studio C, a 1936A McElroy MAC KEY. While some Mac Keys take a heavy hand, this one is a smooth operator and I enjoy using it.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z …. SK … SK …. (dit dit) ….