Mind? What mind? *blush*

[N5AIT Allan Stephens]

Time to hang up the mind for a while...

     I have been working on an HQ-170 pulled out of the woods.  It is in
decent condition
but had a few internal changes (why do they DO that?).  This one had the
second
antenna terminal and the ground terminal tied across the STBY  RECV
switch so that
they were shorted on the STBY position.  Guess previous owner was using
it to
throw a relay somewhere.

     With the addition of a new 0B2 it was otherwise working pretty
well, but the normal
STBY RECV function had been defeated so the Relay socket in the back
made no
difference in going back and forth, TR to RCV.

     Discovered the problem when I had it hooked up and going on the air
- at least
my T-R relay grounds the RCV antenna on XMT, so could run the QSO I
started by
cranking the RF gain all the way down each xmt time.

     Anyway, pulled it, uncased it, turned it turtle and found the
modifications, which I
undid, restoring it to original Hammarlund intent.  Then I slipped it
back in the case,
taking trouble to set the clock correctly since the extension control is
gone.  In case
and on and.... nothing.  Lit up prettily, clock ran fine, but no
controls did anything.
I thought back over my repairs to figure what I could have done to leave
it with
NOTHING working...  A couple minutes stewing, then I thought back over
the whole
repair process...  and remembered I had pulled the 5U4 so I could set
the critter on its
back to work on it.  And guess which tube I had forgotten to
re-install...

     Slip it out of the case far enough to put the 5U4 back in, get it
all fastened down,
turn it on and it lights up prettily... but band to band there is
nothing, not even
xtal calibration working.  A few minutes more fussing while trying to
figure how I
had busted it... when I noticed that when I turned it ON (On-OFF switch
is on the
RF Gain) I had not then advanced the RF Gain.  So there I was trying to
figure out why it
was not working when I had zero RF gain...

     Quick fix (turn the d*** thing up) and it is working fine on all
bands...  and it is time
to walk away, maybe take a nap, have a cup of coffee...as long as my
mind decides it
it on vacation too.

     I do have it all running at least - when I remember to do it right!
 Hope y'all's holidays
are going well, and that you are keeping your minds turned on better
than I.  If not, grab
a cold one and just enjoy being alive!.

     73,  Al  N5AIT