[Hammarlund] Hq-180 vs 145 and 170

[k0dan]

Hi Mike...

Interesting questions. You are right, there are die-hard fans of each of
those receivers, and many others as well. The answers, of course, are
subjective, but I've been asking myself similar questions. Over the years I
have collected and used a lot of receivers (RACAL, Collins, Hammarlund,
Hallicrafters, Drake, etc.). I have started thinning out my collection since
I don't have the space, time, nor enough ears to listen to them all. I'd
like to end up with one modern station, and one 50's-60's vintage station to
be used for general SWL and hamming.

I recently sold my HQ180, leaving an SP600,  R388, SX115, and RA6217, all
still in the collection. While some of these have better specs, look more
cool, and are more valuable, that HQ180 was pretty fun to operate and
sounded pretty darn good. It also performed great on AM and did a pretty
decent job on SSB and CW. The others look cool, operate well, are a lot of
fun to use, and have certain niches in which they excel, but I still kind of
miss that HQ180. (Also departed from my collection, but which fit the same
commentary were an R390A, Drake 2B, Collins 651S1 and 51S1, and a few others
which escape my memory at the moment.)

You need to ask yourself what you're looking for...if it's mostly AM
listening, and a desire for AM fidelity, then the older receivers might
serve you best. If it's AM listening in crowded bands (especially amateur),
then something "newer", ie 60's vintage (when crystal & mechanical filtering
and passband tunig become more prevalent) will probably serve you better. If
you also want the box to do a decent job on sideband, then you may want to
pick something that has better stability, a product detector, more advanced
AGC, and separate filters for LSB and USB.

Ultimately, one receiver may not do it all. So much to choose from!

Good luck and 73,

Dan
K0DAN

----- Original Message -----
From: <mfisch at kent.edu>
To: "hammarlund" <hammarlund at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 9:20 AM
Subject: [Hammarlund] Hq-180 vs 145 and 170


> Hi:
>
> I have both an HQ-145 and an HQ-170, and I'm thinking of replacing
> both by either a Sp-600 or Hq-180.  Does anybody out there have
> thoughts: good move, neutral move, Hq-180 beats Sp-600,   ... ?
> I typically SWL and am working to get General lic. I've checked the
> net and it appears there is a dedicated Sp-600 following and an
> equally dedicated Hq-180 following.  A while back I listened to W1AW
> on both the -145 and -170 and thought both were good, although I have
> probably not developed a discerning ear yet.
>
> Thanks for help
>
> Mike
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