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Reviews For: Hallicrafters HT44 Transmitter

Category: Transmitters: Amateur radio

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Review Summary For : Hallicrafters HT44 Transmitter
Reviews: 3MSRP: 600
Description:
The HT44 was basically a Hallicrafters HT37 with a seperate power supply.It was much lighter than the HT37 and matched and could with cables be used as a transceiver with the Hallicrafters SX117 receiver.
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0034
W9MT Rating: 2012-07-07
Good, solid transmitter... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Had one with the matching SX-117 receiver. (The seller told me that the receiver originally belonged to the Hallicrafters engineer who designed it. Wow. It must have been true...whatever he did to his personal "prototype" made it a really "hot", yet stable receiver. It was better than anything I had had previously, and better than my later Drake R4-C.)

The performance was solid, and the transmit audio was very mellow. I used a Hallicrafters PS-500 AC supply wiht it instead of the usual PS-150-120. It worked well, and perhaps, better.

Dislikes:

Lack of 1KHz readout (the dots on the vfo dial were "near" 1KHz but really didn't track). Other rigs of this vintage already had that down cold.

Transceive between the HT-44 and SX-117 had a frequency zeroing capacitor which constantly needed attention. The two would often wander as much as 1KHz apart, even after a good warm up. Powering down the station and warming up to the same point usually required rezeroing yet again. Not a really big problem, but not true transceive. One was better off to just use them for what they were...a separate transmitter and receiver.
NZ5L Rating: 2012-02-20
Good Rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Starting over in Ham Radio in 1980 I saw one of these at a Texas hamfest, with the accessory power supply, for $100. That was about my budget at the time, and I expected to buy some 5W cw transceiver, but suddenly had a powerful SSB rig. 6 months later, I was able to acquire the matching SX-117 receiver, which I liked very much. The transmitter had to be adjusted carefully on SSB, and you listened on a receiver to see that the unwanted sideband was nulled out. (Imagine doing that now!) This rig was reliable, and worked well with a Hi-Z mic, like the D-104. The Butternut HF-6 vertical antenna was very reasonable then, and with that antenna, and the Halli 1950s technology station equipment, worked some very desirable DX from my Texas QTH. I owned the pair for 3 years before "upgrading" to a TS-820. If you can find one in good shape for a reasonable price, buy it.
K2ACB Rating: 2008-07-29
A good Transmitter for ItsTime Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am surprised that I am giving this transmitter its first review on e.Ham.net.Its companion receiver,the Hallicrafters SX117 has been reviewed on e.Ham.net several times.

Sometime in 1964,I think it may have been the summer of that year,I went down to Grand Central Radio,in Manhattan.New York City to purchase my first new receiver and transmitter.

I had passed, several months earlier, my general class license and was no longer crystal controlled and limited to 75 watts on the novice
hf bands. My call was WB2DZW which I changed 11 years ago for my present call.

I was 16 years old and I had sold my used Heath DX 20 and Hallicrafters SX110.With that money,some money I had saved and a little help from my parents. I was ready to get my first SSB rig.

Grand Central Radio was very close to Grand Central Station and only a 15 minute subway ride from where I lived in Manhattan.One of the people who worked there was Ernie Cheslow(K2LI).He is now an SK and his call has been reissued. Grand Central Radio has been out of business for many years.

Ernie ,whom I became friendly with in later years,recommended the Hallicrafters HT44 Transmitter and SX117 Receiver with the cables so that I could also operate them both as a transceiver. I think I paid for both of them at the time around $800 but I am not sure of this.

The HT 44 Transmitter was basically the same as the Hallicrafters HT 37 Transmitter. However it was much lighter. It matched the SX117 in appearance and came with a separate power supply. That is why it was much lighter than the HT37.

One of the reasons why it was much cheaper than the Collins Transmitters or even the more expensive and much heavier Hallicrafters Transmitter (I think it was the HT1)that matched the Hallicrafters SX115 receiver was that it generated its SSB signals by the phasing method rather than by the crystal filter method.

The phasing method was not as good as the crystal filter method and over the years I had the HT44 I had some problems with the phasing of the SSB signal it put out.

I had my HT44 and SX117 receiver for 12 years.During that time they were fairly reliable.I also had a Heath SB200 amplifier and a 3 element tribander on top of a 14 story apartment building in Manhattan. I used a Shure 440 microphone, During that time I managed to work and confirm over 275 countries.I got good audio and signal reports on both cw and SSB with my HT44 transmitter.

But as they say all good things must come to an end and in 1976 I could no longer have an hf antenna in another qth and I put up for sale my HT 44 and SX117. I think I got about $500 for the both of them which wasn't too bad since I had paid about $800 for them 12 years earlier.

I have seen used HT44's and SX117's in the flea market at the Dayton Hamfest in recent years.I don't remeber the price that was asked for the pair or even if they were sold. I imagine their have been HT44's on eBay and other classified ham web sites like eHam.net in recent months. The HT44 was good for its time but the phasing method of SSB gave way to the crystal filter method and I think the HT44 was the last commercial ham transmitter to use that method of generating an SSB signal.

Also the HT44 was primarily meant to be used with the matching SX117 receiver. I had the cables so I could also use them as a transceiver. I think it was only after this that Hallicrafters started making transceivers like the SR150 This transceiver was basically the HT 44 and SX117 combined into a transceiver.

In any event, the HT44 was a reasonably priced phasing type SSB transmitter,that was good for its time.I don't know if



Hallcrafters sold many of the HT44's without the matching SX117 receiver. It replaced the HT 37 which was also a phasing type SSB transmitter. However the phasing of SSB signals was not as good as the crystal filter method and after the HT44 all the manufacturers of ham radio SSB transmitters or transceivers used the crystal filter method of generating an SSB signal.

If anyone has more to say about the
HT44 or the technical aspects of the HT44 please give a review.I just felt I had to comment at this time because no one else has done so and there were reviews of the matching SX117 receiver. . 73-Alan-K2ACB