Skip to main content

Two steps forward and three steps back.

I am determined, compelled, obsessed, driven, immersed, and downright incentivized to get the HW-32A to a working state. So far, I have failed! It simply can't be that hard!




See if you can spot the new parts that have been swapped in for the old parts? Most of those new parts are involved with the Transmit Mixer and Driver stage and on the Receive side the Receiver RF Amp and Receiver Mixer stage.

My Heathkit HP-23 supply has a two-position switch that controls the LV value. You have a choice of either 250VDC or 300VDC. The LV value is used on the plates of the lower-level tubes and on the Screen of the 6GE5's RF amp tubes.

At the 250VDC setting it is like the receiver is dead and nothing from the transmitter. In the 300VDC position the receiver comes alive and I can get about 10 watts output from the finals.

So now I need to circle back to look once more at all of the voltages on the tube sockets at the 250VDC LV level. Several of the charts in the HW-32 Manual have the nominal pin voltage at the 250VDC setting.

Them that know can make things go. At this point I am not there on this project.

73's
Pete N6QW

Did you participate in any of the demonstrations yesterday? I was too busy at the bench. You also need to know the "crew" knows how to find you. Those photos with your cats are constantly scanned by those who ferret out any resistance to you know who.

Popular posts from this blog

January 26, 2024. A simple CW Transceiver/Transmitter

Cruise through the lower part of the ham bands bands and what do you hear? Well, FT-8 and CW. Often you will not hear any SSB stations yet go to the lower part of the bands, and it is a cacophony (I love that word) of bad sounding signals and some high-speed keying. Fast is not so much of the issue as is bad, run together and jerky keying. But none the less our hobby started there.    So, you could crank down your ICOM 7300 and watch the waterfall on CW or you could homebrew a radio. Actually, to do CW right you need more thought up front than you do with a SSB transceiver. Often, I will state that a CW Transceiver is much more difficult to build than a simple SSB rig. I published two articles in QRP Quarterly on CW transceivers and all I got was a yawn so maybe history will repeat itself.  Yawn!   30M CW Transceiver with RIT!   Of interest is that the LO is a Varactor tuned LC oscillator using a NE602. Look closely at the RIT circuit which is only activated on ...
Read more

March 31, 2024. Happy Easter to those who celebrate this day.

What a great day to Binge on Chocolate and experience the pain of that filling that has been leaking.  I would be in that category with the leaking filling(s) had I not just spent an amount equivalent to one of the fancy new uptown appliance box transceivers on two filling repairs. Well at least I can binge on the Chocolate bunnies without fear of pain. Regrettably everything appears to have jumped in price including the price of parts. Well not so much the parts as the shipping costs.  That notably is seen in the eBay treasures. I spotted a nice heathkit DX-20 for about $50 and the shipping was $65. Likely it is a twofer with part being a way to in effect charge a higher price by inflating the shipping and in part by increased shipping costs. Shipping with insurance across the US was about $150 for this jewel and that was three years ago. 6AM on the Left Coast ~ 20M Easter Sunday! My only hope is the cost of Chocolate Bunnies remains steady although a pound of See's Candies f...
Read more

August 30, 2024. A PNP 20M SSB Transceiver

Shown below is the Block Diagram for the 20M PNP SSB Transceiver steered in the  Transmit Mode . The components shown in the dotted block are relay steered so that the block module is single pass and amplifies in a single direction. The Block diagram show steered in Transmit.  Essentially the steering process works so that the IF Module input follows the Balanced Modulator on Transmit and then the input side follows the Receive Mixer on Receive. All done with some relays and a bit of RG174U coax. For those who count things in detail, this block diagram is not unlike what was used for the PSSST Transceiver which can be found on my website . Yes, a warmed over P3ST only using PNP devices. TYGNYBNT. 73's Pete N6QW
Read more