| N8COO |
Rating:  |
2020-08-25 | |
| Had some good points and issues as well. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I purchased this radio new as a closeout - think it was 1975 - not too long after I got my license. I thought it was a cool looking radio, controls were laid out nicely, had a nice bright meter in it, and it had great audio (transmit and receive). It had CW too, but forget using it on that mode - awful! However, I found out there was a good reason the lid had latches so you could easily open it up. Seems like there was always something needing tweaking, or breaking. I recall having to replace one of the sideband crystals and the 20 meter band crystal within the first year or two. And a transistor. And if you moved the lid, the frequency would change. Seems to me the vox controls were touchy, and if you wanted to use it on CW, they had to be completely re-adjusted. Sensitivity wasn't that great, especially on the higher bands, but then again, as long as signals were decent, it was pretty quiet on receive. No RIT, either! (Not the only rig in that era with no RIT). After getting it about as good as it was going to get, I ended up building a Heathkit 303 rcvr, and purchasing a 400 xmtr (twins) and used them in the shack - much better, especially on CW...and decided to try the Hallicrafters in the mobile. It did have a built in 12 volt supply - nice - rewired the plug and went at it. Made a few contacts, but with no noise blanker...never could get rid of the ignition "popping" noise, even with a lot of bonding and shielding, which was quite loud. And, I should have know better, as it was hard enough keeping the rig stable in the shack - let alone in the mobile! I kept the Hallicrafters for a few years longer and used it portable a few times (vacation cabin & demos) and it worked well for checking into SSB nets and so on. Best left on, and parked on one frequency - as long as everyone was zero beat...no problem.
I did learn quite a bit with this one...so as they say, when you have a lemon, make lemonade! I guess Hallicrafters saw the handwriting on the wall - around that era, Kenwood came out with their TS-520, and it was a far better rig than the FPM-300 MkII. I know, as I had a 520 many years later and yeah, there's no comparison...how much better rig that it was.
Even with the problems...I got my money's worth out of this rig, and have some good memories of it - and learned a lot in the process!
73, Mark N8COO |
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| WB4IVG |
Rating: |
2020-07-13 | |
| It was the Best of Times It was the Worst of Times! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I bought this radio after owning its predecessor the Non-MKII. I was sorry that I had gotten rid of the Original FPM 300 and wanted it back or a better version of it. I found this one at the Birmingham Alabama Hamfest, the old hamfest held at the Fair Grounds. The owner had kept it in immaculate condition even to keeping the box and all the papers. It looked like New it even smelled NEW! I got it for a steal for only $225.00 at the end of the day because the owner said that it would not transmit. I took it home and promptly started tearing it down I went through it circuit by circuit finding basically nothing wrong with it except that it would not transmit. the more I dug into it the better it looked and the more impressed I was by its construction. Now do not get me wrong it was not my KWM2A or even close but it was way smaller and ready to travel mobile or fixed! Finally, I pulled the final tube to test it. It lit up right away and tested excellent! But why shouldn't it the previous owner who had bought it new said that he had just replaced the final getting ready for an extended vacation intending to take his radio with him. I began digging deeper into the radio finally finding that there was no connective path between the plate cap of the final tube and the bottom of the Plate Choke I carefully went through that circuit and there I found it, the fine wire of the plate choke burned or blown into two pieces! I unwound about half a turn cleaned the varnish from the wire and resoldered it to the correct lug. Instantly as soon as the rig warmed up it came to life working excellently with more power than my previous version had exhibited. I played with it for an hour or more making several contacts and listening to stations all over the bands. I was satisfied I turned it off and began the reassembly procedure. I noticed that the final tube's plate cap was really close to the top cover. After careful consideration, I decided that I would add some fish-paper or Teflon sheeting if I could acquire it to the lid to prevent any possible contact between the lid and the tube cap. I turned the rig back on it seemed to work fine but as with the radio before it, the lid rattled on a loud station with a lot of lows in the audio. SO I reached to buckle up the latches on the lid so as to remove any loose motion so there would be no place for the lid to rattle, as I reached behind the radio to hold it to do the latching and to set it into place on my radio table I SAW STARS and my ears began to ring! Sometime later I regained consciousness and realized that I was laying across my desk chair and the corner bookshelf. With my ears still ringing and my right hand still burning I began to access the situation. My new Radio was hanging by the cables off the desk and into the floor. Luckily I solder PL259s really well onto RG8 so it saved the radio from crashing on to the floor below. No damage there, but my right hand was another story, it was burning like I had held a lump of hot coal in it. I went into another room where the lights still worked and could see the imprint of a transistor and a screw burned into my right hand. The imprint of the transistor eventually went away, but some almost 50 years later the small burned brown spot from the screw head still adorns the palm of my hand!!! Upon reexamination of the radio, I found two things, one the final tube was some off-brand and slightly taller than the original, allowing the tube cap to come into contact with the lid if it were flexed much at all! And #2 adding to that the previous owner had attempted to stop the metal to metal rattle cause by the lows from the speaker by installing nylon washers at the lids hinge points Thus insulating the lid to a degree and when I had attempted to snap that buckle I was ZAPPED with the full load of the High Voltage! Lesson Learned I have since done much more thorough inspections before applying any voltage to any device! As for the Radio it performed without issue, I used it for several years both mobile and fixed with excellent results finally letting a life long friend have it in a trade. He would not part with it, I tried to buy it back several times before his death, and now it is a cherished family item which has a lifetime home. |
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| N3DGB |
Rating: |
2014-06-27 | |
| Good vintage rad io |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I collect old amateur gear and try to base my opinions on the state of technology at the time the radio was produced.
After restoring this radio, I found it works remarkably well. The selectivity is very good and the audio quality is excellent. However for CW, the the rig uses a 1750 hertz audio oscillator injected into the transmit audio. This means the receive tone needs to be the same frequency to match the other station. Most folks find that pitch a little high but this way is cheaper than other methods and probably saved Hallicrafters some money.
As far as the VFO stability goes, It was all other the place. After breaking down and thoroughly cleaning the variable capacitor it is very stable. Well within the 100 hz specification even with a 15% change in line voltage. May I just got a good one but I feel it's a great radio for it's time. |
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| K7IWW |
Rating: |
2009-05-12 | |
| Some good points but overall a dud |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I picked up an FPM-300 Mk II on consignment in 1982 for $225, and used it for about three years mostly for NTS net work on both CW and SSB. It had really crisp audio on both tx and rx on SSB, and sounded super on the other end when using an amplified D-104 mic. On CW it drifted in and out of the other op's passband. This got really bad when the power supply dropping resistor started breaking down...the CW note was like a siren on the other end!
The tuning knob mechanism was cheap and the hash marks on the knob and dial did not properly line up as intended to correlate to 1 MHz divisions...one basically had 10 kHz resolution.
An advantage was that the circuit board was easy to access and work on. The only thing likely to go bad of any real consequence was the old fashioned, sputnik-like integrated circuit; I had to replace it and found only one place locally that had them, and I had to buy a dozen...but it was only about $5. I doubt one could find that IC today.
The ease of repair was perhaps the best thing about the rig...I seem to recall that one of these went overboard into the ocean on one of Thor Heyerdal's expeditions and they took it apart, let it dry, and reassembled it and it worked fine.
Eventually, one of the sideband filter crystal legs on mine broke and so it's been off the air since then.
Oh yeah, the VOX circuit was temperamental and it sucked that the controls were all under the opvewr. You'd get them adjusted for SSB VOX finally, and clamp the cover closed, whereupon the VOX adjustments would be off again. And of course the CW QSK adjustments were different from the SSB VOX adjustments.
I have some fondness for this radio but in being as objective as possible, I have to give it a "2." It could qualify for a "1" but it was hardly that bad. Comnpared to other rigs on the market at the time, however, it doesn't deserve more that a "2."
This is worth owning it it is in very good condition and one is a collector, as the FPM-300 Mk II was the last transceiver made by Hallicrafters and indeed, I believe the last radio it marketed at all, at least for amateur radio. |
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| VE2ITZ |
Rating: |
2008-02-28 | |
| Heavy, ugly and good for a dump |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I had one that my brother acquired in a garage sale and it cost him about 20 bucks.
It was my first HF Radio and well since it was free i did not complain.
Terrible, Awful, the worst i have experienced in my life. (It gave me headaches and stomach nausea looking at its gray color).
It awfully reminded me of that early 70's era. All square and gray and ugly!
I think the only thing that was cool was the fact that it was a "Hallicrafters"
It was drifting and was off frequency by about 20 khz! LOL
I had the impression i was transmitting with an International Harvester's "Scout".
But what the heck; i did have some contacts on it, and pretty far too!
I ended selling it to a fellow for $175. |
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| N0XE |
Rating: |
2007-08-23 | |
| Worked for Me |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This was my first real radio after my initial entry in to ham radio via a Heathkit HW 16. I was a Novice in 1975, if it was such a bad radio I sure did not notice it. I was limited to CW yet worked so much DX there was not space left to put up any additional Qsl cards so I just started tossing them in a drawer. I was in Alaska and that probably helped with my Qsl rate but I really had no issues with this radio. I also purchased this on a close out with AES , maybe I just got lucky, but mine worked very well and my antenna was pretty poor, a ground mounted vertical in the high artic tundra and no radials, yet worked most of the USA as well Europe, Asia and even S. America. It may be a dog by todays standards but for a novice in 1975-76 I was in heaven, hi, 73 Jim N0XE |
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| W8ZNX |
Rating: |
2006-01-21 | |
| end of Hallicrafters |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
the worst tube type hf xceiver
ever had the misfortune to own
poorly made bad paint job
push on top cover and she shifts freq.
even after one hour warm up drifted worse than any other ssb xceiver iv ever owned
even the Swan Cygnet runs rings around it
this radio
was one of the nails in the Hallicrafters coffin
mac w8znx
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| KM5CU |
Rating: |
2001-07-20 | |
| Good rig |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This has been a good little rig. When I got it in 1995 it looked like it had undergone some major repairs, but it has never failed me. Unfortunately it came without the 10 m Xtals and without the DC cord. This radio has a buit in Inverter basically, and can be operated off of a 12 V battery. I am still looking to either get that cord or somehow rig me one up! Sometimes the rig will just go silent. I heard that this is because of the (new at the time) FET technology and hypersensitivity to electrostatic discharges. It does drif a little and sometimes the balanced modulator and the final DC bias needs to be adjusted, but other than that it's still kicking! All these little quirks makes for a fun evening playing around with the dials and adjusting this and that. Thanks for the forum! |
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| WB0FDJ |
Rating: |
2001-05-15 | |
| A Fine Rig... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
In 1975 I ran one of these, almost daily, for the better part of 3 years. It was purchased new as a closeout (closeout!, heck they went out of business!)for about $375. I recall that the original FPM-300 had a bad rep, and the mark II spiffed up the rig albeit too late to save it from extinction.
This was a fine, basic radio. On SSB it held it's own alongside Swans and Tempos. I don't ever recall anything "wrong" with the radio. I took it on field day 1976 and my ham buddies are still talking about it.
Only complaints: no filters. Today I would get a simple outboard audio filter, esp for cw. The top of the rig easily flips up for easy access to stuff like side tone adjustments, etc. It never required any service and never had any significant glitches. |
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