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- MY HQ-129(X)
RECEIVER
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ESCAPADES
- This HQ-129(X) I got from a
"RADIO GUY" on E-bay. It was listed as non-operational, no audio output.
When it
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arrived I ascertained that it was indeed not functioning, first the fuse
was open, replaced it. Then still no audio out
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ok, I need the manual, so a quick trip to http://www.bama.com provided
me with the manual, which had the tube layout
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in it. Ah ha, there are tubes in the wrong place, and 2 wrong tubes as
well, well I can take care for that, I'll put new
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tubes in the right places and then see what happens.
- Alright it works there is audio coming out of the speaker and it tunes
after a fashion. The seller said the meter didn't
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work on the unit and he was right about that it was busted and a check
assured me I would not be able to fix it. OK
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I need a meter for this radio, so maybe I can bid on a broken radio with
a good meter on E-bay and that will cover the
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problem quite nicely.
- I spotted another HQ-129(X) this one had a meter in it, I bid on it and
It was shipped and arrived in good form, however
it wasn't packed the way
I requested and paid extra for, it came in a single box with no foam no
newspaper, no packing of
any sort, I was amazed it got here at all. I put
it on the bench to check it out as I wanted just the meter anyway for this
HQ-129(X). I immediately found out why it didn't light up, again there
was no fuse, I put one in and turned it on, Darn-it this
one lights up
just fine. I put the indoor antenna and a speaker on it and there on 80
meters 3880 were the AM guys carrying on!
- Humm
now what, I had to replace the lamp inside the meter, a #47 bulb and
guess what, the meter
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worked as well. Now what? I've got two (2) radios one with a dead meter
and both playing real fine. O.K. back
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to E-Bay and this time I'll only bid on a meter if there is one. I spotted
an auction for a front panel with meter, well I managed
to win that one
too and when the panel arrived, I removed the meter
and put it in this receiver number now -
known as HQ-129(X) number one.
- I
decided to keep both receivers and pair them up with my BC-610(*)
transmitters.
However if I was ever going to be able to
show them off I would have to
clean up the front panels and repaint the Bezel around the -
meter and the Dial windows. Well
Tabs' silk-screen operation has been put
on hold until we can find a bigger
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house to hold all our "STUFF", so I remembered there was someone selling
"NEW"
front panels for the HQ-129(X) so
I waited to see if they would show
up again, they did and I bought two (2) in a "dutch auction" and transplanted
them to the
two receivers. I made up some cables for the Antenna connection,
and the speaker output and set them -
aside for general listening until I get the space to pair them up at a
"Genuine" BC-610(*) station setup.
- The receiver had all the original
wax caps in it, and I considered changing them to mica types with a
500V rating. That seemed
a little much so since the unit was working so
well I couldn't complain, and I would wait until/if they gave me trouble.
This radio
had a very interesting item sitting on top of the variable tuning
cover it turned out to be a calibrator. -
I didn't recognize it at the time as there was no tube in it and just the
ID tag and the 100KC xtal. I looked for info but
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searching for the part number didn't turn anything up. I was looking for
Hammarlund stuff on E-bay and the part number
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showed up, BINGO, it is a FC-135 calibrator and I checked its description
on the auction, and it uses a 6AU6 tube.
- The top-side of the chassis
was fairly clean and just a little dusty and it cleaned up well, and so
did the cabinet, as for both
cabinets I repainted them. I performed the
Alignment as per the "new"
manual and things were looking really great, with the
new front panels
and I want to try my hand at repainting the Bezel for the front panel,
as it was originally a wrinkle finish and
a different color.