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Reviews For: Hammarlund HQ-140-X

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Hammarlund HQ-140-X
Reviews: 8MSRP: 264.50
Description:
Vintage General Coverage Receiver
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0085
VE7ZWZ Rating: 2016-12-20
Great Receiver Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Great receiver for communications or pleasure listening. If you are interested in "everything you need to know" about this receiver, I have a 3 hour video explaining the complete alignment process, and in the end, some band cruising time together. Just google "Mr Carlson's Lab" you will find it. As a service to the HAM radio and SWL community, I plan to do many more like this.
KI7AQJ Rating: 2016-11-28
Align it right, and these work incedibly well. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
For their age, and the technology, these things are just fantastic receivers. The selectivity for a tube radio is very good. The peak on the IF is nice and sharp as you dial in the attenuation, and with the phase control you can put interfering stations in the notch and pull in a DX station from some pretty murky mud. These are really impressive receivers for their day, and even today they are just a joy to fool around with. I love working on them, and bringing them back up to spec. When you attenuate farther and narrow that peak, the signal will drop 5dB or so, but that's perfectly normal, for these fine old war horses. I have refurbished a few of these over the years. My only regret, is not having enough room (or money) to own a boat anchor collection that includes one of these majestically wonderful old radios.
KK6IYM Rating: 2016-10-07
Daily listening radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have other Hammarlunds and this one is really nice. It is sensitive, quiet and there is literally no drift. My SP 400 is very sensitive and quiet, but I need to constantly re-adjust the dial as it warms up. I use this for listening to AM in the afternoon. If I had a complaint it would be the audio, but I could fix that with a different capacitor in the audio stage. As far as needing a product detector, I have no problem setting the pitch to pre- determined settings and using the BFO for SSB reception.

Norm
KK6IYM
KZ4B Rating: 2016-02-24
Best "pre-product detector" SSB radio known, Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Elmer who gave me my Novice Exam had an HQ-140-X as his main receiver--so when I had a chance to purchase a nice one--I grabbed it. To my great surprise. I have found it to be the best all around single conversion (455 KC IF) with diode detector receiver that I have ever used. Note that I have collected or sampled just about every other similarly configured receiver including the HRO-5, SX-28A, HQ-129X, and NC-2-40D, Etc. The following comments apply:

1)SSB/CW detection is literally on par with modern Product Detector equipped receivers including even today's "rice-box" transceivers. SSB audio quality is excellent even with the RF Gain set to maximum!
Sensitivity is as high or higher than any other similar receiver (with 3 IF & 1 RF Amplifiers) so lack of sensitivity does NOT account for a lack of diode detector overload. My HQ-140-X appears to be "stock" (especially the detector & BFO circuit) in every way. I therefore attribute great SSB/CW performance to high BFO signal injection level to the detector.
2) Mechanical and electrical frequency stability is quite good for a receiver of early 1950's vintage (I.E. stays "put" after warm-up)--so is very serviceable for SSB/CW operation.
3) Stock received audio quality with the matching Hammarlund Speaker is excellent and in fact superior to my later model HQ-(170A & 180A) receivers with matching speakers.
4) Some HQ-140-X receivers reportedly came with (optional) built-in 100 KC crystal frequency (factory) calibrators. While the circular Bandspread DIAL frequency calibration is quite good--crystal calibration is a desirable/useful option. My receiver had no such option--so I found an external 9 Volt battery operated (solid-state) Heathkit calibrator for mine.
5) Like all 455 KC single conversion receivers, image
rejection above 40 Meters tends to degrade rapidly. However, this is a negative that often has no impact on actual operation. As stated above, good frequency stability affords practical operation above 40 Meters.
6)The HQ-140-X achieves remarkably good selectivity via a single pole crystal filter with variable tuning and phasing controls to allow narrow peaking and notching of signals within the IF Band-pass.

In short, this early 1950's receiver represents the best performance available using technology typical of high-end receivers during WW 2.
WD8PCU Rating: 2012-01-20
Excellent receiver especially on SSB with a simple addition. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been a Ham for 50+ years and would like to share with everyone a simple way to have excellent sideband operation with this and all Hammarlund Receivers. The trick is to place an adjustable tube
shield over the second detector tube " 6al5 " on the 140XA . The shield should NOT touch chassis ground. Now here is the sweet part ; I use a Frequency Selective Voltmeter and I tune that to 455 khz and I use coax from the Antenna Input on the Frequency Selective Voltmeter to that 6al5 tube
shield. Now I do not ground the coax to the radio, only connect the center of the coax to the tube shield via an alligator clip. I use the RYCOM 3121 FSV as it has a real cool solid state construction. It has a 2.5khz filter, input attenuator , Product detector, USB and LSB switch as well as passband tuning.I just bought two of the RYCOMS on Ebay for a meager 50 dollars each. I find the performance on SSB to be AWESOME. I run the old 140 XA in the AM mode and all SSB is done thru the Rycom.
Operating in this way allows the 140XA to remain original and you can still enjoy supreme SSB with
the radio set to AVC on as normal.
Try this and you will be very happy at the results.
VE3PMA Rating: 2011-08-21
Very good set Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was given the HQ-140-XA by a ham friend and it has now become my main AM and shortwave receiver. After I aligned the oscillators I found it to be a very stable radio that only required a short warm-up and simply did not drift. CW and SSB reception is fine, but there is no AVC action with the BFO on. The bypass and coupling capacitors are disc ceramic and there was no need to replace them. All in all, an excellent vintage receiver.
JRBUCK96 Rating: 2005-10-21
BIG HEAVY GREAT Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had my HQ-140-X for two years now. It is an excellent radio. I built my own antenna and it works terrific!!! It is very sensitive and the dial is such that you can really tune this radio in. It is sensitive to RFI, but with clean power it is as good as the best radios being made today. If you have space a Hammarlund will serve you well!!!
N1SBA Rating: 2003-05-11
Great old boatanchor Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had this rig for a couple of months. I't has great sensitivity. Literally no drift once it warms up. The audio is really good when hooked up to a large 8 ohm speaker. I'm using a 45ft end fed antenna with a good ground. Selectivity is good. The limiter works great. I'm on a small farm with electric fences. Flip the limiter switch and I don't hear the fence at all! I used to have an on HQ-120x years ago. The HQ140X is even better.