License to ham?

That Hammarlund is kinda on the low end of receivers. If it had any value at all, it would only be as a curiosity/nostalgia piece. Ebay would be your best bet. You could just hook up any wire laying around to the antenna connection (longer the better), ground it well (the radio, not the antenna), plug a 1/4" headphone into it (you could use a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter and your ear buds), power it up and see if it will receive anything. There would be no "mic" as it is a receiver only. The "TRANS" position is only going to basically turn the receiver off so it wouldn't be overloaded.

RossD wrote: Do any ham radio people still use old tube ham radios? I inherited a Hammarlund HQ-129x and it looks in decent condition but it doent look like i got anything to hook up to it (speaker, antenae, mic...) to test it. Would this have any value?

Looks like they've sold on eBay for $66 to $225 without accessories.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?clk_rvr_id=1078261003354&mfe=search&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_nkw=Hammarlund+HQ-129x&_sop=3

In reply to Dr. Hess:

I didn't find a schematic for that model (in a very brief search)so I don't knowif it has a "death cap" but this is old high voltage tube electronics. Probably 375vdc on the plates of the 6V6 tube with of lots likely dead paper and oil capacitors.

Old gear like this needs to be slowly brought up to full voltage on a variac. Best case scenario it will have lots of 60 cycle hum from bad filters in the power supply, worst case the chassis goes hot. Not to mention the potential impedance mismatch from headphones. Putting a lesser load on an output transformer that is expecting 8 or 16 ohms could cause big problems.

Tube electronics are awesome but require a lot more caution than you suggest.

In reply to Jumper K. Balls:

I wasn't really interested in plugging it in and firing it up (I probably shouldn't phrase it like that), plus I think 375vdc on the plate of a 6V6 is bit high even for the 6V6GTA.

I found the schematic, and it's got two death caps! Thanks for the safety warning, as I've been only working on new tube amps lately, and I hadn't considered the 'old' hazards lately.

In reply to RossD:

I didn't realize it was you. I know you know your way around tube electronics.

I took a nasty hit from an old Halicrafters radio with a shorted ground cap back when I first started playing with vacuum tubes. It was just idling on the bench and I touched the metal volume knob. Must have had my other hand on something conductive. I picked myself up off the floor, yanked the cord out of the wall and didn't go back to the workbench for a month.

Once I watched a lady at a flea market take an old radio to a wall outlet to test it before buying it. She plugged it in, turned the knob on, let out a yelp and dropped it. The bakelite case shattered on a pretty valuable old set.

Hell, Keith Relf from the Yardbirds died this way. I wouldn't want some ear buds connecting my head to anything with this potential.

I will always listen to safety warnings. I just hope I heed them.

Radios of that vintage were looking for high impedance headphones.

As of today KE8EWN

Congrats! ES 73 DE NG6Y

First contact made today! He was on the other side of town, but it was still exciting.

I don't HAM, but I CB a lot. It used to be so heavily used, but not so much now.

KFQ9227 was the call I was assigned when I was 3 years old.

Jumper K. Balls wrote: In reply to RossD: I didn't realize it was you. I know you know your way around tube electronics. I took a nasty hit from an old Halicrafters radio with a shorted ground cap back when I first started playing with vacuum tubes. It was just idling on the bench and I touched the metal volume knob. Must have had my other hand on something conductive. I picked myself up off the floor, yanked the cord out of the wall and didn't go back to the workbench for a month. Once I watched a lady at a flea market take an old radio to a wall outlet to test it before buying it. She plugged it in, turned the knob on, let out a yelp and dropped it. The bakelite case shattered on a pretty valuable old set. Hell, Keith Relf from the Yardbirds died this way. I wouldn't want some ear buds connecting my head to anything with this potential.

GFCI outlets are cheap and turn these sort of events into a tingle for a split second while the GFCI trips. I have one on a cord for working on mains powered stuff live.

i need to do this. i have always wanted to get my ham test done, never knew hot to do it.

Chiming in... I've been interested in getting my license for a while now. I thought I was pretty good with electricity/electronics, but I failed the practice exam on the ARRL site with a measly 57%.

Ouch.

Ham test.org

Its really intimidating at first, but not bad at all

thanks java, will check it out this week.

The study guide I used was very good, I would recommend reading through one a few times. Your practice test scores will dramatically improve.

I talked to the guy that wrote the one I used, KB6NU. He said you just need to memorize as much as you can to pass the test and get on the air. Then you really start learning.

64% on my first try.

Not bad considering my last radio class was in 75

In reply to paranoid_android74:

Agreed, its all memorization of the electrical stuff at first, the actual radio "useage" part is easy and will become second nature.