Month: October 2022

Hammarlund HQ-100: Replacing more tubes

The HQ-100 manual conveniently provides a table of the voltages you should be seeing at the tube pins. After replacing three of the tubes in the HQ-100, I went through and checked all the tube pin voltages and ended up replacing two more tubes (the 6BE6 and 6AL5 tubes). I didn’t have a spare 6AL5 tube on hand, but I discovered the VoltOhmyst VOM I acquired a while back also happened to use a 6AL5 tube. After pulling it out of the VoltOhmyst and putting it into the HQ-100, all the voltages at the tube pins matched the voltages in the table.

Unfortunately, I’m still not hearing any static or audio from the radio, so there’s more work to be done. The realignment procedure described in the manual calls for a 455 kHz signal source, so the next task will be to get one set up.

Update 02-Apr-2023: Since I had them on hand, I replaced the 6C4, 6BZ6, OB2, and 5Y3GT tubes. Now the only tube that hasn’t been replaced is the 6AQ5.

A 2023 ARRL Handbook

With the 1926 1st edition ARRL Handbook bookending my collection at one end, I now have the 2023 100th edition ARRL Handbook to be a bookend at the other end of the collection.

Cover of the 2023 100th edition of the ARRL Handbook

It’s a pretty hefty tome, and like previous handbooks, stuffed full of pretty much everything a person needs to know about amateur radio.

The hardcover Handbook also gets you the electronic version of the Handbook as well (I was sent a link to download both the Mac/Linux and Windows versions), which includes a ton of supplemental content for each chapter, project PDFs, and some software as well. What I haven’t seen in the electronic version (yet) is the insert between pages 15.18 and 15.19 giving a look at the evolution of the Handbook over the decades.

Insert in the 2023 ARRL Handbook providing a look at the ARRL Handbook over the decades.

It’s a nice little review, starting with an interview with K1NKR and his collection of QSTs and Handbooks (sounds like he’s got all but two of the Handbooks…quite the impressive collection) and then highlighting changes in the Handbook by decade.

Looks pretty good on the shelf with the other Handbooks.

2023 100th edition handbook added to the ARRL Handbook collection