[Hammarlund] Intial restoration of the HQ-140X

[C Eus]

All:
I recently received in the mail a Hammarlund HQ-140X
(older style with larger cabinet and black knobs). The
seller said it was in excellent condition with some
steel plate at the back mounting an SO-239. The
matching speaker was missing the logo.

What he didn't tell me was that it came complete with
yellowing from a smoker. Hmmm...hints of coffee,
cream, vanilla, and other complex flavors. I like
cigars but maduro on the HQ-140X wasn't my cup of tea.
Insides look fine but dirty. This battlecruiser just
needs a cleaning.

Yesterday, I did an intial test of the rx. Works
abolutely great for a yard long piece of wire hooked
to the SO-239 ant connector! I did pick up 5 Mcs WWV,
broadcast AM, various shortwave, and what have you. No
hum so it works. Next, I took out the rx from the
cabinet and proceded to give the cabinet a bath. Using
purple power cleaner and dish soap, I sponged away all
of that yellow gunky crap. Now the cabinet takes on a
more correct metallic dark grey hue. Today, I followed
up on using Meguiar's cleaner. The cabinet is a lot
cleaner now with an attendant gloss to the finish. 

I proceeded to remove the panel starting with the
knobs. I dumped the knobs into an aluminum container
containing essentially the same mixture I used to
clean the cabinet. All of the gunky/greasy stuff has
been soaked off. I rinsed out the knobs and they take
on their nice glossy black appearnace. Looks nice.

The panel was a small chore too. I had to use a
stronger solution of the purple power cleaner stuff to
take off the heavy cigar smoke off the panel. After
two applications of the dish soap and cleaner, I
managed to take off ALL of the tobacco stains. After
rinsing, I let the panel sun dry and then applied the
Meguiar's paint cleaner to the panel. Looks great!

The next task is to remove and clean off all the tubes
and wipe down the chassis and follow up on the
controls with Deoxit. No paper caps to change out! All
are disc ceramics on the bottom. I will have to change
out that plate. Whoever had this rx had done a butcher
job on that antenna connector but with a fresh piece
of steel to cover that hole, it should be all that
bad. 

I will end up putting a thermistor/surge protection
device in line with the line input and concurrently
switch over to a three wire cord.

Once done, the HQ-140X will be used as a companion to
my Viking II. 

Oh yeah, I forgot about cleaning up the speaker.
That's going to be another project for later on.

73 de Cal, N6KYR. 



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