[ARC5] Radios and the Canal

[Bill Cromwell]

On 05/17/2013 09:58 AM, Todd, KA1KAQ wrote:
--snip----
> A trademark that appears to be exclusive to amateur operators, 
> apparently. Can't speak to all of the lesser models Mike, have only 
> used the 120 and 150, both of which seemed quite stable after a 
> reasonable warm up period. I do know that the Super Pro line was very 
> clear in their manuals that the receivers were meant to be left on to 
> stabilize. All that mass wasn't meant to be switched on and off on a 
> whim like the old kitchen AA5. Use them as intended and keep them in 
> fighting trim, they're tough to beat by any standard. Military and 
> commercial ops seem to have done quite well with them. Hammarlund did 
> recognize this as a potential problem and issued a fix to help them 
> stabilize faster. I believe the postwar SP-400 aimed primarily at the 
> amateur market included it, or at least every one I've seen had it. It 
> involves installing one small cap, and the results are well worth it. 
> But back in the day, with racks of receivers left on 24/7, it probably 
> never entered anyone's head. In my experience with the HRO, NC-173 and 
> NC-183-D, the National radios

Well ya know,

I had a HQ145X and when I got it it drifted so much it was really 
useless for CW or SSB and almost useless for AM! I found that the HFO 
was the drifting part but the tube tested good. I subbed in several 
others I had and the VFO settled right down! I trashed the one I started 
with so as to never have it another VFO. After that I was able to use it 
without touching it again for hours in Navy MARS and ham traffic 
nets..with about a 20 minute warmup. The clock/timer on mine worked so I 
set it to turn on about a half hour before all of my nets started (one 
right after another). I wish I still had it.

73,

Bill  KU8H