[Boatanchors] HQ-170/NC-300

[telegrapher at att.net]

I bought a pretty nice HQ-170A at a yard sale about 15 years or so ago.  Was going to keep it for use with AM but other things came into the picture.  IIRc i had to keep one hand on the tuning to keep a SSB signal in the window.  Don't remember much more about it nor how long it sat and warmed up(?) before i used it.  

Back in the odd year of 1969 i bought an HQ-180, my first commercially built for hams radio.  Might have been an A, don't recall but it did have the clock,  One day i turned it on, this was in the early to mid 70's, and it had this horrible ac note to anything i tried to listen to with the BFO on like SSB or CW.  never could find out what was causing it.  Had a good friend who was a very good radio tech who looked it over, tried this and that, couldn't find out what was causing it.  Traded it off for a Drake R-4B/T-4X with AC supply (little extra cash here) and have not missed it since.  Love that Drake gear for stability and just plain good operation.  

Had an NC-300 in the early 90's but didn't keep it around long enough to evaluate it.  What little i did use it, seemed to be ok but then i wasn't real hep on what it took to make a real receiver.  Others were looking for NC-303 types.

Have fun with all the evaluations.  Kind of like sorting nuts and bolts out of a glass jar.

Larry
W0OGH