[Hammarlund] HQ-180 problem seems to be fixed

[Robert Sauvan]

Well,
After sifting through everyones suggestions as to what to do to go about 
fixing my AGC problem, I believe I hit on the source this morning. I 
think we could consider it the most basic "radio restoration 101". It 
turned out to be a dirty AVC switch. As I was carrying the thing back to 
my workbench this morning to continue troubleshooting, I had the cover 
off and looked down and noticed the AVC switch was plain as day. It 
looked a little crusty and quite frankly I dont remember ever cleaning 
that switch from when I purchased the radio. So, I cleaned the heck out 
of it before firing it up on the workbench again. After a thorough 
cleaning, turned the radio back on a "voila" clear nice sounding cw 
signals again. I now feel I have the radio sounding as it should. As 
WA2CWA pointed out, the audio isnt the greatest on these units and I 
feel it is back to square one now as built many years ago. Now that it 
seems right, I want to try that mod in the ERM article. I am waiting to 
get a copy sent to me and will let everyone know how it turns out if I 
should decided to try it.Thanks for everyones help once again. Another 
great educating moment. Now, for the tube shield inquiry, I might just 
try the black paint process just for the grins to see if I cant make 
this radio run just a bit cooler.

73-Bob-W0YBS