HQ-145 Opinions?
 

I am getting a Hammarlund HQ-145 and would like to get some of the
groups opinions on the radio, compared to the competition at the time.
I am looking forward to getting the radio, as a kid in jr. high, my
dream was always an HQ-180!
Thanks in advance
--

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

On May 20, 8:13 pm, "Count Floyd"
wrote:
I am getting a Hammarlund HQ-145 and would like to get some of the
groups opinions on the radio, compared to the competition at the time.
I am looking forward to getting the radio, as a kid in jr. high, my
dream was always an HQ-180!
Thanks in advance
--

Never had a 145 but a close friend bought a new 145X in early 60's,
used it with a Hallicrafters HT-32 & made tons of CW contacts with it.
It was a average cost receiver which was good for most hams!
GL.....
Rich WA2RQY/4

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

Receivers can be rated objectively and subjectively. When you compare the
HQ-145 with the best receivers available, it turns in ordinary performance.
Stability is good for am and below 20 meters. Selectivity is fair.
Calibration is fair.

But, despite the fact that I would not rate the HQ-145 as a top end radio in
performance, I enjoyed owning and using mine. It has a great feel and is
appealing. The HQ-180 is a superior radio, but the HQ-145 was really the
end of the line in the development of the 455 kHz receivers, which started
with the Comet and HQ-120.

I gave mine away to a foreign ham many years ago who needed a receiver and
miss it. Perhaps someday there will be another one in my collection.

73, Colin K7FM

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

"Count Floyd"
wrote in message
news:BJ4mQCBKg9HM-pn2-umr5iZPzNdyp@localhost...
I am getting a Hammarlund HQ-145 and would like to get some
of the
groups opinions on the radio, compared to the competition
at the time.
I am looking forward to getting the radio, as a kid in jr.
high, my
dream was always an HQ-180!
Thanks in advance
--

The HQ-145 was the last in the line that started with
the HQ-129. It has essentially the same circuit but uses
miniature tubes and has a voltage regulator and temperature
compensation.
These receivers have a single RF amp stage so the image
rejection is not high but they have three IF stages so
selectivity is actually pretty good. Also, Hammarlund had a
patented crystal filter which was easily the best of the
bunch. Collins used the same circuit in their receivers.
This series was intended to be a medium-price adjunct to
the Hammarlund catalogue. Their top of the line receiver was
the Super-Pro which was also the most expensive receiver on
the market during most of its life.
In general Hammarlund have very good quality of
construction and good design. The dials are directly driven
(no dial cords) and have a very positive feel.
The HQ-145 is interesting in that Hammarlund, who
indulged in rather small knobs for decades decided to use
extra large ones on this receiver and on the SP-600.
There are instruction manuals on a couple of sites, BAMA
for one.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

"Count Floyd"
wrote in message
news:BJ4mQCBKg9HM-pn2-umr5iZPzNdyp@localhost...
I am getting a Hammarlund HQ-145 and would like to get some
of the
groups opinions on the radio, compared to the competition
at the time.
I am looking forward to getting the radio, as a kid in jr.
high, my
dream was always an HQ-180!
Thanks in advance
--
Oh, dear, I need to be more careful. I was writing about
the HQ-140X, not the 145 although some of the stuff applies.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

The HQ-145 is dual conversion, which is an upgrade from the HQ-140.
Otherwise, it is pretty much the same.

Colin K7FM

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

On Tue, 20 May 2008 21:22:15 -0700, "COLIN LAMB"
wrote:

The HQ-145 is dual conversion, which is an upgrade from the HQ-140.
Otherwise, it is pretty much the same.



Colin K7FM

I have one which I just recapped (I got a "positive smoke test with
the old filter caps.) It's only double conversion on the higher
bands. Its a decent enough receiver for the era, but it is no HQ-180.

It has a decent crystal filter for the era, but nothing like todays
filters.

I agree it is in the chain of HQs 120, 129, 140, 150 each of which was
a small incremental advance of its predecessor (I'm not really
familiar with the HQ-150 and I don't know the differences between it
and the physically similar HQ-140. I suspect the rationale for the
HQ-145 was to have a receiver in that price niche with the electical
characteristics of the HQ-140 (and perhaps the 150) and the styling of
the line with the cast aluminum panel introduced in 1957 with the
HQ-100 (of which I had one of the very first ones when I was a
teenager. It was ordered for Christmas 1956 and advertised about three
months earlier. I think I had one of the first 10 of these. The HQs
100, 145, and 180 were general coverage with band spread in the ham
bands, and the 110 and 170 were ham band only as they existed at the
time. I believe there was also a transmitter and an amplifier with
that panel/cabinet design, but I was in college then and didn't see
much ham gear.

Aside from the replaced filter caps, my HQ-145 is in very nice
electrical and physical shape. I have not used it in actual
communications. Someday I'll find a nice Viking Adventurer...one of
the transmitters I had as a kid, and pair it up with the HQ.



Jon W3JT

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

The HQ-150 is a glorified HQ-140. It has a Q multiplier (in addition to the
crystal filter) and a 100 kHz calibrator. It is single conversion. My
opinion is that the HQ-145 is better than the others for general coverage -
except the HQ-180 and the SP-600.

Hammarlund did make a couple of transmitters - the HX-50 and HX-500. They
were a different style and probably more suited to the HQ-170 or other
receiver that specialized in receiving sideband.

I have Johnson Adventurer and it is a good "no-frills" cw rig and would
match up with the 145 nicely.

73, Colin K7FM

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

On 5/21/08 1:33 PM, in article ,
"Jon Teske" wrote:

On Tue, 20 May 2008 21:22:15 -0700, "COLIN LAMB"
wrote:

The HQ-145 is dual conversion, which is an upgrade from the HQ-140.
Otherwise, it is pretty much the same.



Colin K7FM

I have one which I just recapped (I got a "positive smoke test with
the old filter caps.) It's only double conversion on the higher
bands. Its a decent enough receiver for the era, but it is no HQ-180.

It has a decent crystal filter for the era, but nothing like todays
filters.

I agree it is in the chain of HQs 120, 129, 140, 150 each of which was
a small incremental advance of its predecessor (I'm not really
familiar with the HQ-150 and I don't know the differences between it
and the physically similar HQ-140. I suspect the rationale for the
HQ-145 was to have a receiver in that price niche with the electical
characteristics of the HQ-140 (and perhaps the 150) and the styling of
the line with the cast aluminum panel introduced in 1957 with the
HQ-100 (of which I had one of the very first ones when I was a
teenager. It was ordered for Christmas 1956 and advertised about three
months earlier. I think I had one of the first 10 of these. The HQs
100, 145, and 180 were general coverage with band spread in the ham
bands, and the 110 and 170 were ham band only as they existed at the
time. I believe there was also a transmitter and an amplifier with
that panel/cabinet design, but I was in college then and didn't see
much ham gear.

Aside from the replaced filter caps, my HQ-145 is in very nice
electrical and physical shape. I have not used it in actual
communications. Someday I'll find a nice Viking Adventurer...one of
the transmitters I had as a kid, and pair it up with the HQ.



Jon W3JT



Any good ham can whip up a good quality 10-20W transmitter in a few hours
from their QST junkbox. Go for it.

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

On May 20, 5:13 pm, "Count Floyd"
wrote:
I am getting a Hammarlund HQ-145 and would like to get some of the
groups opinions on the radio, compared to the competition at the time.
I am looking forward to getting the radio, as a kid in jr. high, my
dream was always an HQ-180!
Thanks in advance
--

Sorry but I thought it was a mediocre radio. When you open it up you
as yourself "What did they do with the other half of the radio"? You
would be much better off with one of their older pre miniature tube
radios such as the HQ0150,140 or 120. Of the more modern radios the
HQ-110 was not too bad though.

Tony

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

The HQ-140 and HQ-150 were miniature tube radios. They were pretty much the
same circuit - except that the HQ-145 was dual conversion on the upper band,
which gave it better image rejection.

This is where the subjective part comes in, as I was not impressed with the
HQ-110. It did not have a crystal filter and did not have the ultimate
selectivity of the other receivers. Sure it had a crappy Q multiplier, but
that only gave "nose" selectivity and no "skirt" selectivity. It was more
compact and looked nice. But, I was over at my friend's house when he
brought home a Drake 2B to try next to it. The HQ-110 left the house the
next day and was traded in on the 2B.

Life was simple in those days.

I just reviewed the 1845 Telegraphers Handbook. I suspect that telegraphers
were the first to use acronyms, since they charged by the word and could
increase the amount of coins in their pocket by shortening words. Most of
the acronyms or abbreviations were recognized, but one that caught me by
surprise was "Pascoela = Natives have plundered everything from the wreck".
Not too sure it would be useful today. I am guessing Pascoela is an acronym
from another language.

73, Colin K7FM

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

(COLIN LAMB) wrote in
:

Most of the acronyms or abbreviations were recognized, but one that
caught me by surprise was "Pascoela = Natives have plundered
everything from the wreck". Not too sure it would be useful today.
I am guessing Pascoela is an acronym from another language.

That's not an acronym or abbreviation but a code, intended to hide the
meaning of the message. Pascoela is the Portugese name for Easter
Monday (I think).

http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~reedsj/codebooks.html

Until about 1905 the vast majority of code books supplied
actual dictionary words (or artificial words) as their code
words, such as ``Snatch = Sutter Packing Co., Yuba City,
Cal.'' in the private code of the California Fruit Canners'
Association, or ``Pascoela = Natives have plundered everything
from the wreck,'' in the very popular general-purpose ABC
Code, some supplied number equivalents -- sometimes instead
of, and sometimes in addition to-- the code word equivalents.

But in the first decade of this century code books began
appearing with code words which were meaningless and often
unpronounceable fixed length groups of letters, usually of
five letters. Thus, in a later edition of the ABC Code we have
``ewvgl = Pascoela = Natives have plundered everything from
the wreck'' and so on.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

COLIN LAMB wrote:

I just reviewed the 1845 Telegraphers Handbook. I suspect that telegraphers
were the first to use acronyms, since they charged by the word and could
increase the amount of coins in their pocket by shortening words. Most of
the acronyms or abbreviations were recognized, but one that caught me by
surprise was "Pascoela = Natives have plundered everything from the wreck".
Not too sure it would be useful today. I am guessing Pascoela is an acronym
from another language.

Pascoela is the Sunday after Easter, or alternately the week after Holy
Week. I think the word is Portuguese; in English we call it St. Thomas'
Sunday.

Could well have been the name of a ship that was plundered by natives at
one point.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
...
(COLIN LAMB) wrote in
:

Most of the acronyms or abbreviations were recognized,
but one that
caught me by surprise was "Pascoela = Natives have
plundered
everything from the wreck". Not too sure it would be
useful today.
I am guessing Pascoela is an acronym from another
language.

That's not an acronym or abbreviation but a code, intended
to hide the
meaning of the message. Pascoela is the Portugese name for
Easter
Monday (I think).

http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~reedsj/codebooks.html

Until about 1905 the vast majority of code books
supplied
actual dictionary words (or artificial words) as
their code
words, such as ``Snatch = Sutter Packing Co., Yuba
City,
Cal.'' in the private code of the California Fruit
Canners'
Association, or ``Pascoela = Natives have plundered
everything
from the wreck,'' in the very popular
general-purpose ABC
Code, some supplied number equivalents -- sometimes
instead
of, and sometimes in addition to-- the code word
equivalents.

But in the first decade of this century code books
began
appearing with code words which were meaningless
and often
unpronounceable fixed length groups of letters,
usually of
five letters. Thus, in a later edition of the ABC
Code we have
``ewvgl = Pascoela = Natives have plundered
everything from
the wreck'' and so on.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |
I found a scanned copy of the "Philips Code" on the
web, don't remember where. The Philips Code was a
compilation of the abreviations used by telegraphers and
includes those for commerce and press use. It will show you
the origin of currently used CW abreviations like 73 and 88
adn SK, which is really the number 30 translated from
American morse.
Word codes, usually five letter combinations, were
introduced to reduce cost for transmission and also increase
speed especially via cable. Two widely used ones were the
ABC code and Bentley's Code. I don't know if anyone has
scanned and posted either. Both ABC and Bentley's went
through many editions with additional groups added for new
terms in the same way that dictionaries add new words. Each
group could stand for a whole sentence. I have an ABC code
book in deep storage somewhere.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

On Fri, 23 May 2008 12:43:37 -0700, "Richard Knoppow"
wrote:

I found a scanned copy of the "Philips Code" on the
web, don't remember where.

Perhaps the text on: http://www.qsl.net/ae0q/ ?

The scanned version on a Canadian site doesn't seem to exist any more...

-- Larry

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

On Fri, 23 May 2008 12:43:37 -0700, "Richard Knoppow"
wrote:

I found a scanned copy of the "Philips Code" on the
web, don't remember where.

Or the page linked to from Wikipedia: http://www.radions.net/philcode.htm

Same data, but all in one html page.

-- Larry

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

I assume you want some positive reinforcement to make you feel
good about owning this receiver :) It get's a five star rating on this
site:

http://www.dxing.com/rx/hq140.htm

Regarding the set only being single conversion on the lower frequencies,
that is not a problem. The double conversion provides improved
image rejection on the higher frequencies, but single conversion
probably offers stronger signal handling capabilities (less likelihood
of mixer overload.) Enjoy the radio.

Pete

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

On Fri, 23 May 2008, Tio Pedro wrote:

I assume you want some positive reinforcement to make you feel
good about owning this receiver :) It get's a five star rating on this
site:

http://www.dxing.com/rx/hq140.htm

Regarding the set only being single conversion on the lower frequencies,
that is not a problem. The double conversion provides improved
image rejection on the higher frequencies, but single conversion
probably offers stronger signal handling capabilities (less likelihood
of mixer overload.) Enjoy the radio.

And that sort of scheme was fairly common. Change one stage of the IF
into a mixer/oscillator, and get better image rejection on the higher
band (which is where they needed it). It was simpler than moving
to the scheme of a crystal controlled converter ahead of a receiver
that always tuned a fixed range and certainly cheaper. I'm not
quite sure why they didn't just keep the stage always in circuit,
your point about eliminating the extra mixer seems a bit much for
the time (when there was a lot less talk of such things).

The SP-600 did it, the later Heathkit transistor portable shortwave
receiver did it, I seem to recall even the HRO-60 did it (complete
with a microswitch that did the switching when the right coil tray
was plugged in).

Michael VE2BVW

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

"pltrgyst" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 May 2008 12:43:37 -0700, "Richard Knoppow"

wrote:

I found a scanned copy of the "Philips Code" on the
web, don't remember where.

Or the page linked to from Wikipedia:
http://www.radions.net/philcode.htm

Same data, but all in one html page.

-- Larry

I have it as three HTML pages. Probably the same thing.
Mine is labeled "Bicentenial Edition".


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

"pltrgyst" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 May 2008 12:43:37 -0700, "Richard Knoppow"

wrote:

I found a scanned copy of the "Philips Code" on the
web, don't remember where.

Or the page linked to from Wikipedia:
http://www.radions.net/philcode.htm

Same data, but all in one html page.

-- Larry

I checked this, its the same as I have except all in one
piece instead of three. Thanks for finding it.

73 es 30


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

I have an HQ-145X that I recapped a few years ago. I've not listened to
it recently but remember that back when it was new I was rather
disappointed by its mediocre stability on CW. But I was very happy with
my HQ-110, which was a good ham receiver for its time.



In article BJ4mQCBKg9HM-pn2-umr5iZPzNdyp@localhost,
"Count Floyd" wrote:

I am getting a Hammarlund HQ-145 and would like to get some of the
groups opinions on the radio, compared to the competition at the time.
I am looking forward to getting the radio, as a kid in jr. high, my
dream was always an HQ-180!
Thanks in advance

HQ-145 Opinions?
 

I have restored a 140X and I live it. Use it mostly on 160, 80 and 40 as
well as casual SW listening.

--
Carl
WA1KPD
Visit My Boatanchor Collection at
http://home.comcast.net/~chnord/wa1kpd.html

"Richard Knoppow" wrote in message
m...

"Count Floyd" wrote in
message news:BJ4mQCBKg9HM-pn2-umr5iZPzNdyp@localhost...
I am getting a Hammarlund HQ-145 and would like to get some of the
groups opinions on the radio, compared to the competition at the time.
I am looking forward to getting the radio, as a kid in jr. high, my
dream was always an HQ-180!
Thanks in advance
--
Oh, dear, I need to be more careful. I was writing about the HQ-140X,
not the 145 although some of the stuff applies.


--
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA