The AM Forum

Hi Everybody,

Last night, I satisified my jones for a Hammarlund, by winning an HQ-129X on ePay for $112:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=250241445693#ebayphotohosting

I do have one concern in retrospect.  The thing has been modded a fair amount.  I'm going to leave the mods alone for now (after all some of them may make the HQ-129X more usable).  But, my guess is that like most mods, these have little to no documentation, meaning that if the HQ-129X starts to act up, I'll have even more work than usual ahead of me, trying to figure out what's wrong with it.  To help get a possible leg up on some of the mods - what are the common mods that were done to this receiver?

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Hard to tell how badly modded it is, looks quite pimped up! The switch above the dial could be for a calibrator. The weird bubble to the right...tuning eye? Panadaptor? Looks pretty cool. SSB product detector mod, maybe a narrower passband mod, AVC mod....should be pretty straightforward?

If you ever decide to put it back to stock, Ron Hankins sells replacement panels. Looks like a lot of added utility though. Appears to be decent work, at least on the outside.

Hello Ellen,

That green tube looks like a 6AL7 Electron Ray Tube.  It has two deflection plates, and is capable of displaying two rectangles of varying sizes.  Uses a standard octal socket.  I recall dad used one in an HB FM tuner as a tuning indicator.  To center the signal in the discriminator, you would adjust the tuning until the rectangles were equal in size.  Hard telling what they used it for in the Hammarlund. 

If you confirm it is a 6AL7, the common deflection plate is pin 5, and the individual deflection plates for the separate rectangle sizes are pins 4 and 6.  You can trace these wires back to see what they were looking at.

Hope this helps a little bit,

73,
Rick

Hi Guys,

As I mentioned previously, I'm leaving it as is for now.  Some of the mods may make it a pretty good performer.  I won't know until I try it out.  This radio was an "ahh, why not give it a try?", 2nd choice bid for me.  I originally was going to bid last night on a fixxer upper HQ-129X that needed an enclosure, and power cord.  But my chump change bid of $65 wasn't enough.  I got outbid.  I think this one went cheap because: a.) bidding ended on Sunday night; b.) people were turned off by the mods.  Rick - I figured that might be a cat's eye tuning indicator tube in the top right corner of the HQ-129X.   thanks for your input guys.

73.
Ellen - AF9J
Plugging away at work

testing   my first attempt to post a reply went to cyberspace

Well that one worked....I see from the epay fotos that it still has 5U4 rectifier....You can take 30 or so Watts of heat generation out by putting in solid state rectifier...usual problem is increased B+ ...If you are going to keep the mods, I would probably want to take this step to take load off the ps xfmr.  The hv supply is unusual in as it is capacitor input but dual filter inductor with stock filter caps at 10 uFd (C53,54,55)...remove C53 and replace with 2 uFd 400 V plastic/poly...this will lower B+ back to stock value (265 V at pin 4 of 6V6) I used 22 uFd for C54,55.  Everything looked good on the scope and dmm   73

Thanks for the info.  BTW, cool Icon - Rodger Daltrey from the the album "The Who Sell Out."

73,
Ellen - AF9J

"Holy crow Ellen --  that's one modded radio (and I'm being polite)"

I concur heartly...
Wonder what he did with all the knobs?
I like the trapezodial face, they should have made one like that.
I may have enough chicken head knobs if you decide to put it back.
I have a really nice original 129X and it works GREAT.

73, Ron W4RON

Thanks Ron,

Yeah,  like i said, I think all of the mods done to it, put off a lot of potential bidders.  I'll try it first with the mods still installed.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

hammy hambone is yer buddy. He makes radio affordable again for those people who cant afford 'collectorism' and are willing to use sweat equity in getting rid of all his junk to get what they need to strap. On the other hand, they save a lot of gear from the dump. It's a mixed bag.

The price of gear I used to be able to take away for free, rebuild and enjoy on the air is just too much, but if you are willing to work you can get the same stuff. The one thing I can say about shelf collectors is that many of hem are LA-Z. If the thing is flawed, they just pass on it. If the thing is flawed to me, it represents an opportunity.

Yuppers Derb,

That's one of the reasons I got my Viker II for peanuts - it had a couple of extra holes in it, and it wasn't working.  Nowadays, it works great, and I'm glad I have it. 

73,
Ellen - AF9J

P.S. - sorry to hear you're going to lose your driver's license.  That has to hurt.

Ellen
I hope it survives the trip with UPS. 
Or better yet- you are using a different shipment method.
73
Steve WA2DTW

That's the spirit Derb ol' pal. And last I heard you on the air your "brought back to life" station was a STRAPPIN' !

Ether gods helps us when you get the munky spanker blowin' smoke !

Hi Steve, it's being shipped USPS Priority mail.  I Hopefully they won't be like UPS.  For me, UPS has always been bad for home delivery (I'm never around when they stop, and I remember the time when they left a $1000 Ten Tec Delta II in the back courtyard on a day with off and on rain showers).

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Congratulations Ellen
It is a great AM receiver, and will look very good next to the Viking II!
73
Steve WA2DTW