[Hallicrafters] SX-146 Receiver, HT-46 Transmitter, and S-38B Restoration

[Lee]

I just acquired a Hallicrafters SX-146 receiver and a Hallicrafters 
HT-46 transmitter to restore.  I'm really excited about doing it. So far 
I've just been looking at them and kind of assessing what all needs to 
be done.  So far I've checked the tubes and all are in excellent shape.  
I've acquired manuals for both as well.  I plan to install new can 
electrolytics as well as all the other electrolytics and out of 
tolerance resistors.  (Someone had removed the two 90uF can caps and 
installed axials in their place.  They have to go!)

The transmitter is a one lung transmitter using a 6HF5 sweep tube and 
the box only operates on the normal sideband between 80 and 10 meters.  
It also does not contain a relay to switch the antenna between receiver 
and transmitter.  (But, I have a few electronic TR switches to handle 
that problem.)  The transmitter and receiver boxes are small and I think 
good looking with their slide rule dials.  I never thought I'd be 
interested in this series, but I'm hooked now.  Just something about 
them caught my eye.  I'll have to repaint the cabinets someday, but that 
will come last after all the electronics are up to par and running again 
after being aligned. This series is of a fairly simple design so 
hopefully they will not be too hard to restore.  The transmitter is 
missing the accessory VOX unit, a three tube affair, so I was thinking 
of installing a solid state VOX unit available on Ebay from Rainbow 
Kits.  It's an IC, transistor, and small relay affair, inexpensive and 
called a VOX-1 Voice Activated Switch.  I'd put it in a small box 
attached to the rear panel with DELAY and GAIN pots mounted on the VOX 
box.  It can run off of 5 volts, so I thought I would rectify the 6.3 
volt filament and feed a 5 volt regulator which would power the VOX 
unit.  Sure wish the receiver had the CW and AM filters.  They are not 
in the radio.  I think the IF is 9 Mhz but I'd have to make sure I am 
correct here.  If so, maybe I could find some 9Mhz filters for some 
other equipment to put in my radio.

Anyway, I'm excited about my newly acquired Hallicrafters twins plus my 
S-38B restoration projects.

Lee, w0vt