[Heathkit] Assistance With HW-202 Please

[Duane B. Fischer, W8DBF]

Hi All, 	
	
Despite the fact that my ninety foot poured concrete driveway was buried beneath
a foot of that beautiful white somewhat crystalline substance known in the
highly technical Meteorological circles as 'snow', a brave Ham of ninety years
attempted to navigate it without the aid of a GPS unit. Hey, I never liked that
rosebush anyhow! My ex-wife bought in, she ran off with a guy at the place she
was employed and that hybrid rose plant grafted onto the stem of an ordinary run
of the flower bed wild rose, stopped producing those big as a Florida grapefruit
gorgeous pink roses and reverted back to those more ugly than the national
winner of the Most Ugly Pickup Truck In America competition. Besides, W8QLZ came
bearing a gift. 	
	
He gave me the Heathkit HW-202 that his brother, now a SK, had built in the
early seventies. What a wonderful gesture! Roy knew that I loved the older gear
and he wanted the two meter rig to have a good home where it would be properly
exercised and loved. I assured him it would be a treasure for the rest of my
life, and it will too!	
	
Roy did not have the owners manual, just the original assembly manual his
brother had used to construct it. If any of you should be in need of a copy of
this manual, please contact me! I will have copies printed and send it to you
just for the cost of printing/postage.   	
	
I know very little about the HW-202. Perhaps you can give me some general
specifications, operational tips and warnings of known issues it may have had.
If there are mods or fixes for known issues, I would very much appreciate
knowing where to find the publications containing this information or links to
web sites that address such problems. Thank you.  		
	
'Looking' at the front panel, I notice a S-meter, on/off/volume knob, what I
suspect is a squelch knob just above the power/volume knob and two parallel rows
of four push buttons.   	
	
The first three buttons of each row are to select the operating frequency, I
think. You push one in and the previous one that was 'in' pops out. The last
button on each row is a switch. You press it in and it remains there until you
press it a second time to turn off whatever was turned on. What functions do
these two push button switches activate?    	
	
If there are any other functions on the front panel, I have missed them.	
	
The rear has a hard wired power cable set up for operation from the cigarette
lighter of a mobile. I found no way to operate the HW-202 from a bench power
supply without cutting the cigarette lighter plug off. (I know that you can
purchase a power supply with such an option on it for around seventy dollars at
RS, but i have two perfectly adequate power supplies here and can not justify
spending seventy dollars just to use the cigarette lighte rplug.) Is there some
other way to power the HW-202 without having to cut the plug off? 	
	
The antenna connection is the RCA type, just as I have on the Heathkit HW-30
Twoer. Why did Heathkit use the RCA jacks in the first place? Just saving a few
cents over the cost of a SO-239 or?	
	
If someone could tell me what other jacks or connections are on the rear I would
very much appreciate it. Please describe what you see looking at the rear of the
HW-202 and moving from the far left toward the far right. Thank you. 	
	
Question: 	
What is the input power and output power?	
	
Question:	
There is no VFO, both the RX and TX are crystal controlled. There are six
choices available. I must purchase both a receive and a transmit xtal for each
of the six frequencies, correct? What information do I need to purchase a
matched pair of crystals from a fellow Ham or to have them made by ICM, JAN or
etc.?	
	
Question:		
How do I get to the crystals? Please describe the steps viewing the front of the
HW-202 before you sitting right side up.	
	
Question:	
I suspect this FM only transceiver is intended for simplex operation only. Is
this correct? If not, how does one set up the offset, PL tone and so forth? 	
	
Thank you very much for your guidance and suggestions. They are most
appreciated! I would like to get this little fellow on the air and talk to W8QLZ
one eveing in the very near future.			
	
The frequency he uses is 147.52 MHZ.	
	
If any of you have matched pairs of crystals, or whatever I need, that will work
with the Heathkit HW-202, and are willing to sell them, please contact me with
the frequencies and price. Thanks!		
	
Duane Fischer, W8DBF	
dfischer at usol.com