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Sunday, June 15, 2025

A Nice Quick HW-101 Restoration Video

 This video is almost enough to get me to work on my old HW-101. 

Pete N6QW has been working on an HW-32A monobander. Some of the info in this video might be applicable. 

at 6:27 AM
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3 comments:

  1. Todd K7TFCJune 15, 2025 at 3:59 PM

    I watched this last night and I was initially appalled to see this rig given what amounted to a car wash. It dawned on me, though, that the cleaning was much more effective than any other method *provided* it's carefully dried afterwards, as this was. It's also a no-nonsense, "get on with it" approach that deserves consideration.

    BTW, I consider Heathkit rigs such as this one to be an exception to any opprobrium on store-bought gear. Whether or not Heathkit gear represented "homebrew" is a matter of near-complete indifference to me, but the resulting rigs were *not* appliances. It took *some* skill to build properly, and it certainly took skill to operate. There were no menus, no autotuners, no digital-signal processing, and no waterfalls to make operation as simple as falling off a log. Failure to "tune, dip, and load," for instance, could cost you your finals, and maybe more.

    Aside from any of that, Heathkit gear was well-designed and their assembly manuals were legendary for detail, illustration, and completeness. Aside from their radio kits, over the years Heathkit offered a wide range of kits for test gear--including oscilloscopes, signal generators, and vacuum-tube voltmeters--that provided two or three generations of hobbyists with lab equipment they could have had--given the cost of professional gear--in no other way. In this manner, Heathkit was an *enabler*--not of "co-dependence" but of self-reliance and technical competence.

    I of course have a particular soft spot for the Benton Harbor institution because my Father was one of those so enabled by their offerings in the 1950s and 60s. I not only grew up with Heathkit catalogs scattered about the house on coffee tables and toilet backs, but I also learned to use some of the gear. My Dad's Model V-7 VTVM, with its cracked meter face and scuffed wrinkle finish, is one of my most prized possessions (and a damn-good meter). Father's Day is a good day for me to think about Heathkit.

    Without indulging in protestations of decline and hand-basket-to-hell grumblings common to those my age, I will say something was lost (or perhaps only misplaced) when Heathkit (and Knight, etc.) could no longer make a go of it. It's true amateurs are much-more enabled than ever before with cheaper digital scopes and microcontrollers and nanoVNAs, but still something is missing. Is it soul?

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  2. Bill MearaJune 16, 2025 at 6:43 AM

    I feel myself being pulled into the project. I don't really want to do it, but I might have to. First, after an extensive renovation/reoganization of the shack, I miraculously found the HP-23 power supply recap board created by the Antique Wireless Association. Then, just this morning, I managed to relocate the 11 conductor power supply cable that connects the HP-23 to the HW-101. And I have some ideas on why I couldn't get the VOX and Anti-trip circuits to work right. TRGHS.

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  3. WN2AJune 16, 2025 at 8:09 AM

    That HW-101 is right out of the "catalog picture-perfect". Clean!

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