A METER, A METER MY V.O.M.
FOR A METER
OR
HOW I ENDED UP WITH
TWO (2) HQ-129(X) RECEIVERS
- This HQ-129(X) I got from
a seller on E-bay also, the guy turned out to be a very strange character.
I asked for,
-
and paid for double boxing, and did NOT get it. Before I bid on the item
I sent E-mail to the seller to find out if
-
the meter worked in the unit, as his discription didn't even mention if
it worked or not. He never answered my E-mail
question until after the
auction ended, when I asked again if the meter worked! He said he didn't
know anything about -
radios and that he couldn't get it to light up at all. 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 my other 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
-
worked as well. Now what? I've got two (2) radios one with a dead meter
and both playing real fine. O.K. back
-
to E-Bay and this time I'll only bid on a meter if there is one. I think
there is someone out there with a "Snooper-Scope"
and they are looking
in my "Shack" to see what I'm looking for, because shortly thereafter what
turns up, an HQ-129 -
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 receiver 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 house to hold all our "STUFF",
so I remembered there
was someone selling
"NEW" front
panels for the HQ-128(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.
-
This receiver had all the wax caps changed to mica types with a 500V
rating.
That seemed a little much but since the unit
was working so well I couldn't
complain.This radio did not have a calibrator. The top-side
of the chassis was very dirty
and dusty but it cleaned up well, and so
did the cabinet, as for both cabinets I repainted them black. 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. That job is left
also for when I have "ROOM" to work. Did I mention
I have NO ROOM?