) writes:

Although I haven't tried it, there is allegedly a cure for the cheap
Heath mechanicals in the HW-100/101 and SB series.

What you do is to look around for a junker Tempo One, which is
actually a Yaesu FT-200. All you need from it is the VFO assembly,
which covers the same range as the Heath LMO - 5 to 5.5 MHz.

If you're going to start doing that, then any external VFO that covers
5 to 5.5MHz is a potential candidate. Even up to something like the
external digital VFO that went with the TS-830, though at the moment
I can't remember if it's a 5MHz VFO.

Or build an external vfo with that variable capacitor from the BC-221
that's been lying around for decades, and put a frequency counter
in the box. That's not even a new idea, there were things like that
over thirty years ago when digital ICs became cheap enough to easily
make frequency counters.

This thing will then work with any rig that needs a 5MHz VFO, and has
the advantage of not requiring dramatic changes to the rig. Many
will even have things in place for an external VFO.

There was a whole article in the September 1972 issue of CQ about
this sort of thing for the SB/HW transceivers, though I don't think
he used a frequency counter.

Michael VE2BVW