[Boatanchors] HQ-170/NC-300

[kim.herron at sbcglobal.net]

Well Gang..............

    I'd have to say that my experience with these two pieces of gear 
(National and Hammarlund) has been the EXACT opposite.
I had both a 170A-VHF and 180A.  They were both rock steady from turn on 
and never moved. Slam you fist on the table, pick 'em up and drop them, 
and still be there.  I'm not going to debate the audio quality issue 
because they were designed to be communication receivers and so by 
nature they don't have full range audio.
    I will say that you need to be a pretty fair tech to repair/align 
these beasts and if you're unfortunate enough to get one that someone 
else has "Golden Screwdrivered"  you can be really frustrated after you 
get done.
    I've had several National receivers and my conclusion on them was 
that they were best put at the end of a rope or chain and used for what 
the name "boatanchor" implied.
    So I'd say that this little excursion in opinion research has reach 
the same conclusion which is "opinions are like noses, everybody has one 
and they're all different."  I can say for certainty that the 
Hammarlunds were much more sensitive than the National's (proved that in 
the lab with repaired aligned receivers).  My two cents.

Kim  W8ZV
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <telegrapher at att.net>
To: <Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 5:28 PM
Subject: [Boatanchors] HQ-170/NC-300


>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
>
> _______________________________________________