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Its Heathkit time !!! HW101 is going to 11meters my friends !!

WINKDOGG

President CFO & CPFO WorldwideDX Radio
Feb 21, 2011
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240
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New Jersey
I'm heading to pick up my newest toy! A Heathkit HW-101 that is in beautiful shape and tests fine in receive all bands using only a 6' chunk of wire attached to the antenna connector, only test he can do no longer has antenna array. The gentleman had it on 10 and 80 meters doing 100 watts(Heathkit Wattmeter) around 8-9 years ago and it's been stored in a closet and climate-controlled. The rubber tuner bands have dried up but I can easily replace them with large Auto Parts O-rings! Will post more pics tonight or Sunday, Looking for some information on the 11-meter conversion I have a few different versions I have found I just want the easiest but best clean conversion I can get!


I have already committed to the deal. $100 for the transceiver with power supply original box including the paperwork. I'm also picking it up IN PERSON from the gentleman who is the original purchaser and builder! He even kept his build notes and said he has plenty of original vintage NOS parts and components and tubes he is going to throw in!

I hope im getting a fair deal but to me, $100usd is a decent price to pay for any piece of nice vintage gear in this nice original condition. Also, the provenance is a big plus and the guy still seem like he knows his stuff (just moving to a retirement community, NO ANTENNAS ALLOWED :cry:


Any way check her out! Fresh pics and info coming. Feel free to chime in on my 11-meter mission !! (and sorry I have seen it done so I cant be talked out of it :ROFLMAO:)


Thanks as always !!

73's Winkdogg

Brianhw101 1.jpg hw101 2.jpg hw101 3.jpg hw101 4.jpg
 

Heathkit HP-23 RL power supply replacement PCB
https://www.theheathkitshop.com/page16/index.html

Heathkit HW-101 SB-101 SB-102 Belt set
US $8.95


https://www.ebay.com/itm/283493520846

Optimizing the Heathkit HW-101
http://www.w7ekb.com/glowbugs/ModsEtc/Optimizing the HW101.pdf

http://www.nostalgickitscentral.com/heath/mods/hw101-mod-collection.html

This tube set is a complete re-tube set for the Heathkit HW 101 transceiver which uses the low noise 6HS6 tubes. We also have a similar set using the low noise 6HS6...
6HS6 tubes in place of the 6AU6 (V10 and V11) which give slightly higher receiver sensitivity on 15 and 10 meters.

http://vi.vipr.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBay...der=1&oneClk=2&secureDesc=0&oversion=e89897bb

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Hw+101
 
Heath Kit HW101
or making the green machine work again.

http://northland-drifters.net/HW101Project.htm

http://www.northland-drifters.net/HW101/ImproveHW101.pdf

"If your HW101 has El Menko tubes for the 6AU6, 6HS6, 6EA8, 12AT7, l2AU7, 6CL6, etc. I'd recommend you have spares of another brand. I've not been pleased with the El Menkos, they don’t seem to last plus the bad 6AU6's made by El Menko with the wrong filament voltage. I replaced all the El Menko tubes in my HW-101 many years ago and I believe me it has saved a lot of problems."
Just something to check as these were produced in Mexico, and used in some Heathkits to help keep the overall kit cost down.

https://mikeyancey.com/heathkit-hw-101/
 
Wow....but seriously WOW.
Its a done deal !!Its sitting on the seat of my truck right now ! had to take the girlfriend out tonight lol Hoping to play with her tomorrow (today , Sunday 7:10 am and im just checking forum''s and going to bed lol ! What a mess I am but the Heathkit is not a mess at all !! Original Hkit assembly , tuning , schematics and the builder even hand drew his own schematics throughout the build for his Ham club and I have those too !!

He did a beautiful job with the build in 1972(I think) and Im ready to mod it to 11Meters so feel free to throw out some advice !

73's to all !!
 
You're going to have to REMOVE the 10-meter crystals :(...and replace them with the new 11 meter ones. (you are probably going to have to have those made...$$$)
Then completely realign the 10-meter Receiver and Transmitter sections for peak performance.
Truly the entire rig will need a complete realignment after the belt replacements.
The first thing I would do was rebuild that power supply with the upgrade kit!
Test and replace as needed ALL the tubes. Any tube below 80% goes out IMHO.
Then replace ALL those 50+ years old Paper caps (more like 60 yrs. old) on the RF deck, before anything else, otherwise, you will have a BIG BANG in your future.

PS: that rig requires a High Impedance microphone.
This model requires an external speaker.
heathkit-hdp-121a-electro-voice-620-desk-microphone-w-2-pin-connector-works-b0cf7058878043d70872f0c9fc0045ce.jpg


HDP-21A_Ba.JPG


All the Best
Gary
 
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http://radioremembered.org/HW-101.html
https://w5rkl.com/restored-heathkit-hw-101-2/
Nice restoration work was done here!

Good reading here on why the power supply needs to be rebuilt first!
http://wmsinc.org/N7EBG/heathkitpdf/HW-101 and HP-23A restoration.pdf

RF deck replacement caps
https://hayseedhamfest.com/products/heathkit-hw-100

Troubleshooting tips from Heathkit: http://www.w7ekb.com/glowbugs/ModsEtc/HW-101tips.pdf

https://www.hamradioqrp.com/2018/02/the-heathkit-hw-101-lives-again.html

Not to BURST your bubble, however not a plug and play restoration.
You can see by all these links, many things need to be done to bring this Good Old Girl back to life correctly and Smartly. Regardless of who built it the rig is 60 years old and has been sitting by his own admission AT LEAST 10 years.
So just some humble advice, take your time and do the job right.
Look over the work others have done and why.
You may find this is not a project for you, however, if you follow the work others have done you may find you actually learned somethings in the slow dedicated process.
All the Best
Gary
 
Well here she is ! I have not touched a thing yet . The build date was 1979 I have every scrap of paper including build manual and 3 schematics ! My first steps before powering up are as follows .
Replace the tuning bands (found at Advance Auto and ebay )
Make temp antenna connector from rca jack to pl259 female . Done. (don't want to alter cabinet if possible see last pics)
Next wire up a 2 pin mic with a custom mic plug . I found gold bullet ends that are a nice fit in the mic jack holes !
ReWire the 11 pin connector plug between power supply and radio .
Tubes tested , done ! All in the 85-95% range except 2 that would not fit in Roosters tester , but seller said it was completely retubed 6 months before it was retired .
Hook up a long wire and test receive on all bands using long wire and tuner .
Align Radio through dummy load to original spec before attempting and mods or even full transmit ! So here are some fresh pics . Ill take pics after I clean her up and we have to see if everything is functioning as it should before pressing on !

Oh can I steal the 11Meter Crystal from an old chassis ? I also have 27mhz crystals but they are rc tx/rx crystals on a single freq;( Im going to need to put together a list to order some parts anyway so Ill find the crystal . The big blue caps in the supply look like more modern caps but the seller did not know if he swapped them out in the mid 80's or not so ….

Hope you guys are excited on the project like me ! Please follow along . And to my Hams , I promise not to hack this girl up. Reversible mods and improvements only so If it makes it back on the open market it wont be a splattering bastard child lol

Thanks A Million everybody . Feel free to jump in with ANY helpful , constructive , informative like my buddies above have done !!

73's From the side-bandit 4-2-ZERO NJ107.JPG 108.JPG 109.JPG 110.JPG 111.JPG 112.JPG 117.JPG 123.JPG 124.JPG
 

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