HW 101 restoration
 

I just received a second one off E-Bay. The first one has some problems,
looks good but wired badly, audio hum, but no signal . The wiring is
immaculate on the second one, the guy did a really nice job. Now the
problem, there are six added switches on the front panel of the second
one. Looks like W9NJG built it as his call and SS number are
ingraved. I doubt if he performed the mods. Big resistor network for a
dummy load is mounted inside, added resistors.(in other words a mess)
Also a big muffin fan was added over the finals.

The mods are the problem anybody know what they would do? One is
labeled (in pencil) Lo Hi another has Spkr and I can't make out the
other side.

The quandry is which one to save?

Raymond
VA7 MGB

there are six added switches on the front panel of the second
Yikes!!!
Forget it at best, they are good for CAW.
The VFW's on those are to mechanically and electronically unstable.
If you want a Heath go for the SB-101 with a TRW built LMO


"Ray Collins" *remove wrote in message
...
I just received a second one off E-Bay. The first one has some problems,
looks good but wired badly, audio hum, but no signal . The wiring is
immaculate on the second one, the guy did a really nice job. Now the
problem, there are six added switches on the front panel of the second
one. Looks like W9NJG built it as his call and SS number are
ingraved. I doubt if he performed the mods. Big resistor network for a
dummy load is mounted inside, added resistors.(in other words a mess)
Also a big muffin fan was added over the finals.

The mods are the problem anybody know what they would do? One is
labeled (in pencil) Lo Hi another has Spkr and I can't make out the
other side.

The quandry is which one to save?

Raymond
VA7 MGB

Ray,
Funny you should ask. I've been fixing up an HW-101 I bought years
ago ($20!), and I'm now using it as a backup rig. Actually, the
receiver performance is very impressive. I'm still chasing down
a minor AGC problem, but otherwise its fully functional.

Like your first one, mine was poorly built and I had to fight through
lots of cold solder joints and a couple of mis-wired circuits. Took
some time, but I enjoy this sort of thing. Cheap therapy!

I'd suggest using parts from the rig with the butchered panel
to restore the other one. BTW: the only mod mine has is a
fan bolted to the finals cage. Probably a good thing to have.

Good luck!

Steve W6SSP
p.s.-I heard a heathkit net on 20 meters last Sunday...didn't log the
frequency, but the time was about 1 PM PST. Might be worth
checking out.

Ray Collins *remove wrote in message
...
I just received a second one off E-Bay. The first one has some problems,
looks good but wired badly, audio hum, but no signal . The wiring is
immaculate on the second one, the guy did a really nice job. Now the
problem, there are six added switches on the front panel of the second
one. Looks like W9NJG built it as his call and SS number are
ingraved. I doubt if he performed the mods. Big resistor network for a
dummy load is mounted inside, added resistors.(in other words a mess)
Also a big muffin fan was added over the finals.

The mods are the problem anybody know what they would do? One is
labeled (in pencil) Lo Hi another has Spkr and I can't make out the
other side.

The quandry is which one to save?

Raymond
VA7 MGB

I use a HW-101 alot. After 5-10 minutes of warm up not a problem.
For the price and being able to fix it, IMHO good rig for general rag
chewing..

"-Rev Jones" wrote in message
...
there are six added switches on the front panel of the second
Yikes!!!
Forget it at best, they are good for CAW.
The VFW's on those are to mechanically and electronically unstable.
If you want a Heath go for the SB-101 with a TRW built LMO


"Ray Collins" *remove wrote in message
...
I just received a second one off E-Bay. The first one has some problems,
looks good but wired badly, audio hum, but no signal . The wiring is
immaculate on the second one, the guy did a really nice job. Now the
problem, there are six added switches on the front panel of the second
one. Looks like W9NJG built it as his call and SS number are
ingraved. I doubt if he performed the mods. Big resistor network for a
dummy load is mounted inside, added resistors.(in other words a mess)
Also a big muffin fan was added over the finals.

The mods are the problem anybody know what they would do? One is
labeled (in pencil) Lo Hi another has Spkr and I can't make out the
other side.

The quandry is which one to save?

Raymond
VA7 MGB

I had a HW 101, sold it to my brother, to get a Kenwood TS440 S-AT. While
I'm not going to say the Kenwood is a bad radio, it isn't.. I love the audio
of the "tube" rigs. The glow and so on, seems to add a bit of nostalgia. As
soon as I get a chance, I'm going to buy another HW 101 to put back on my
desk.

FWIW - here is a cure I came across once with my HW101. After warm up, as
the set was being used, the bands (all of them) would drop out starting at
the low end of the dial. Since I operated mostly on 10 meters, it took time
for it to get to that frequency from the low end, to drop out. The first
time it dropped out, I had no clue why. I turned it off, it cooled down, set
was ok til warmed up again. I checked all the bands to find out what all was
going on. I figured it had to be in the VFO. I took the VFO cage off and
there was a resistor just barely touching the chassis with it's lead. I bent
it away from the chassis and that cured the problem. It's kind of weird how
or why it happened and when. I bought the rig used and used it for a year
before that started. It wasn't bumped around alot either, as I kept it on my
desk. Weird...... CL

"Joe" wrote in message
...
I use a HW-101 alot. After 5-10 minutes of warm up not a problem.
For the price and being able to fix it, IMHO good rig for general rag
chewing..

"-Rev Jones" wrote in message
...
there are six added switches on the front panel of the second
Yikes!!!
Forget it at best, they are good for CAW.
The VFW's on those are to mechanically and electronically unstable.
If you want a Heath go for the SB-101 with a TRW built LMO


"Ray Collins" *remove wrote in message
...
I just received a second one off E-Bay. The first one has some
problems,
looks good but wired badly, audio hum, but no signal . The wiring is
immaculate on the second one, the guy did a really nice job. Now the
problem, there are six added switches on the front panel of the second
one. Looks like W9NJG built it as his call and SS number are
ingraved. I doubt if he performed the mods. Big resistor network for
a
dummy load is mounted inside, added resistors.(in other words a mess)
Also a big muffin fan was added over the finals.

The mods are the problem anybody know what they would do? One is
labeled (in pencil) Lo Hi another has Spkr and I can't make out the
other side.

The quandry is which one to save?

Raymond
VA7 MGB

CL wrote:
I had a HW 101, sold it to my brother, to get a Kenwood TS440 S-AT. While
I'm not going to say the Kenwood is a bad radio, it isn't.. I love the audio
of the "tube" rigs. The glow and so on, seems to add a bit of nostalgia. As
soon as I get a chance, I'm going to buy another HW 101 to put back on my
desk.

FWIW - here is a cure I came across once with my HW101. After warm up, as
the set was being used, the bands (all of them) would drop out starting at
the low end of the dial. Since I operated mostly on 10 meters, it took time
for it to get to that frequency from the low end, to drop out. The first
time it dropped out, I had no clue why. I turned it off, it cooled down, set
was ok til warmed up again. I checked all the bands to find out what all was
going on. I figured it had to be in the VFO. I took the VFO cage off and
there was a resistor just barely touching the chassis with it's lead. I bent
it away from the chassis and that cured the problem. It's kind of weird how
or why it happened and when. I bought the rig used and used it for a year
before that started. It wasn't bumped around alot either, as I kept it on my
desk. Weird...... CL

I can't figure how a problem in the VFO would cause that. The VFO tunes
the same frequencies for all bands. The conversion is made to the
various bands by mixing with crystal controlled local oscillators.

Well, it did. I did as I said and the problem was cured. Hey... I didn't
believe it either! It made no sense. It isn't the first time I've seen weird
things happen that beat theory or logic. I've stopped believing that what
most say can't happen - won't. But why I went to the VFO was due to the
"tuning dropping out - the way it was happening". Just made me think to look
there first - lucky hunch maybe, but it paid off. CL

"Ray" wrote in message
news:f5v1c.470449$na.1112911@attbi_s04...
CL wrote:
I had a HW 101, sold it to my brother, to get a Kenwood TS440 S-AT.
While
I'm not going to say the Kenwood is a bad radio, it isn't.. I love the
audio
of the "tube" rigs. The glow and so on, seems to add a bit of nostalgia.
As
soon as I get a chance, I'm going to buy another HW 101 to put back on
my
desk.

FWIW - here is a cure I came across once with my HW101. After warm up,
as
the set was being used, the bands (all of them) would drop out starting
at
the low end of the dial. Since I operated mostly on 10 meters, it took
time
for it to get to that frequency from the low end, to drop out. The first
time it dropped out, I had no clue why. I turned it off, it cooled down,
set
was ok til warmed up again. I checked all the bands to find out what all
was
going on. I figured it had to be in the VFO. I took the VFO cage off and
there was a resistor just barely touching the chassis with it's lead. I
bent
it away from the chassis and that cured the problem. It's kind of weird
how
or why it happened and when. I bought the rig used and used it for a
year
before that started. It wasn't bumped around alot either, as I kept it
on my
desk. Weird...... CL

I can't figure how a problem in the VFO would cause that. The VFO tunes
the same frequencies for all bands. The conversion is made to the
various bands by mixing with crystal controlled local oscillators.

I suppose it is possible that the mixing action of the HFO requires
more power out of the VFO on some bands than it does on others. Perhaps
the shorting cap dropped the output of the VFO enough so that it would
work only on the 10 M band. I would have thought it would go the other
way, though.

-Chuck Harris

CL wrote:
Well, it did. I did as I said and the problem was cured. Hey... I didn't
believe it either! It made no sense. It isn't the first time I've seen weird
things happen that beat theory or logic. I've stopped believing that what
most say can't happen - won't. But why I went to the VFO was due to the
"tuning dropping out - the way it was happening". Just made me think to look
there first - lucky hunch maybe, but it paid off. CL

"Ray" wrote in message
news:f5v1c.470449$na.1112911@attbi_s04...