[Hammarlund] Favorite Hammerlund Receiver

[Glen Zook]

I prefer the HQ-140X because, unlike the majority of Hammarlund receivers, it is very stable after a 20-minute to 30-minute warm up.  The series that started with the HQ-120X, then the HQ-129X, the HQ-140X, and, finally, the HQ-150, all, at least in my experience, are very stable whereas the other Hammarlund receivers tend to be "drifty", especially above around 10 MHz.

Now with careful selection of certain tubes, some of the receivers can be "tamed down", at least for a while (until the oscillator tube gets some "age" on it).  But, the Hammarlund receivers generally do deserve the frequency instability reputation that they have garnered.  Of course, some examples, even within the exact same model, are better than others and some are even worse than others.
 
Glen, K9STH


Website:  http://k9sth.com


________________________________
 From: Brian Burns <burnsguitar at yahoo.com>
To: hammarlund at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2011 6:23 PM
Subject: [Hammarlund] Favorite Hammerlund Receiver
 
I'm looking for a reliable boatanchor receiver for CW and AM ham use. It needs to be a GC model to cover the WARC bands. I've coveted a Hammerlund ever since I got my General class ticket in '53 (W5BRO), and our club, the Rio Grande Valley ARC made a visit to the naval air station in Harlingen, TX. They had an HQ129, and it was love at first sight.

I'm not absolutely wedded to the idea of a Hammerlund, particularly if there is going to be a lot of maintenance. I built the double conversion receiver for 80 and 40 that was in the ARRL handbook in 1956, but I had access to test equipment then.