[Hammarlund] Question about warm-up vs. signal strength

[Mike & Coreen Smith]

Hi Gang,

I've got my new-to-me HQ-170a running pretty fair now .  Really a very nice 
RX.  Thanks of course are due in part to the help I have rec'd from the FB 
folks on this list.

Cleaned lots of contacts, replaced a couple tubes,. etc.  Works very well. 
(some of the tubes in it are marked "Hammarlund", so presumed original) The 
inside underneath looks nearly new and there is almost no rust or other 
damage on the face/case whatsoever) Still a few tiny bugs to work out,

One thing I have noticed is that when I first turn it on, the signal from 
the Xtal calibrator is (for example) s9 on 20m, but after the radio is 
warmed up (15-30 minutes later we'll say) the signal has dropped to perhaps 
S6 or S7)

I notice it fairly consistently right across the spectrum.. Ie: on 6m, it's 
S3 when first turned on, holding steady back to s1 after warm up. (it will 
be rock steady @ S1 for days, so I don't think it's the onboard Xtal cal, 
but the RX itself.)

Is this pretty much indicative of a RX ~45 years old, or are there 
components that I should be looking at swapping out?
(ie: caps, IF tubes, etc.)  I'm quite happy with its performance the way it 
is now, but I suppose if I could make it better. . . .

I have not yet done an alignment on it.  I am working a little on my old 
PACO signal gen to see if it will be accurate enough to use for an 
alignment, otherwise I may not actually do one until I have a better signal 
source.

BTW, last weekend we had an opening on 6m and I had some W9's in here well 
over the s9 mark, so I was quite pleased about that. I am sure my 2x8el yagi 
antennas on the end of the coax cable didn't hurt however ;-)

Cheers,

Mike VE9AA
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