I've been an electrical engineer for coming on 40 years, working in digital signal processing, sonar, radar, detection and estimation - all fancy pants stuff - and I'm in awe of your knowledge and facility, and your dedication to the first-principles understanding it takes to do these restorations. Carry on please, you're the master.
@@MrCarlsonsLab How about a brief bio about your background in a video , we all are curious now ? If I were to venture a guess , I bet you came up in the military or at least worked in the military industrial complex. The test equipment and other devices you have in your lab look like that came out of military facilities. I knew a guy who worked for Raytheon developing and servicing electronics for battleships and you remind me of him. Something tells me you must have worked for a major military contractor as an electrical/electronics engineer.
Yes. It s realy wonderfull video👍. I m radioamator from 70th). And my proffession is fitter of system communikation( exc my english)) . so anyway MANY THANKS FOR MASTER👍👍
I have to say, you're one of the few people good at these sorts of videos- calm, well spoken, free of annoying verbal habits, and intelligent enough to make the viewing time well worthwhile. I'm glad I found you.
@@MrCarlsonsLab The pronunciation of 'Farad' is a bit off to English ears! The emphasis is on the first syllable, here in the U.K.! But then again, I still call capacitors 'condensors' so it's probably just me! Very interesting, though!
@@benmorris2901 haha Ben, great response. I live in the Netherlands and I grew up with the term 'Condensator' (Condensor in Dutch) as well. I beleive that this word is more commonly used than 'capacitor' over here in Europe.
Bringing back OLD memories. In 1958, I was stationed at Churchill Manitoba,Canada working as a "Radio Operator" Air Traffic, Coast Guard, Meteorologist. The HQ 120 never got turned off. It served as CW comm between ships at sea crossing the Atlantic into the Hudson's straits to port in Churchill. Gathering of weather from outposts in the Arctic by CW then re-transmitted by RTTY to get data consolidated into forecast centers. Air/Ground for International flights crossing from Halifax - Iceland- Greenland -England etc. on HF. There were other receivers but the HQ 120 was a dependable OLD workhorse used 24/7/365. (This was the era of the cold war - B-52 with USAF having a base at Ft. Churchilll.) I've recently subscribed to your CH and relive your love of electronics. I've been an active ham for years holding call signs Ve3 Ve4, Ve5, and finally VA3-EI although no longer active after becoming glued to the Internet.
Oh yes, this was a professional CW radio used at small airport, for emergency services, military and as those you mentioned. Heh he described the art of listening to distant places early in the vid without using the term DX'ing. :) Anyway, great restoration work, it looked fantastic.
@@agems56 CW and radio its not obsolete by any means, it's still alive and well. Only CW is now only for people who love it. Now it's now easier than ever for anyone to get their license.
Rumor has it that the term “Dialed In” came from your radio restorations...Your attention to detail has no limits Mr. Carlson. I’ve worked for Beckman Instruments for over 30 years and I have officially been schooled.
Thank you Mr. Carlson because of what you teach here with all your rebuilds I was able to sort out the radio audio repair stores eliminating the lesser quality and identifying the best quality repair technicians. I found a repair guy who removed all the old leaky capacitors, replaced all the old wiring and did a quality job because; I knew what to ask for. It costs me more to have the repairs done right but hey I'm no bean counter either. My repair guy even made improvements that should keep my radio and tape machines running for years. Watching your videos made me a better electronics consumer and for that I say thanks sir! FROM THE AUTISTIC WEREWOLF!
That is the finest restoration I have ever seen; you practically rebuilt the HQ-120 from scratch, a most impressive achievement considering what you had to undo from prior probing hands. Congratulations on an exceptionally difficult task that you demonstrated so well.
Such a pleasure to watch someone repair with such attention to detail, bring one of these beauties back to life. If only your reward would be to turn it on listen to radio as it was when it was king in the 1940 and 50's. I remember listening to Big John and Sparky plus Froggy the gremlin on saturday mornings in north central North Dakota in 1947 and it hooked me on radio I'm still a short wave radio listener every night on my Kenwood R 2000. Thanks again.
I sure wish there was some someone like you back when I started high school a long time ago. I had purchased from a surplus store a BC779 Hammerlund receiver and it drifted like crazy. I lost so many contacts after connecting via a collins ART 13 and when I went back to receive mode they were nowhere to be found. The only person I could ask was the local TV repair guy who said my problems were cold solder joints. I didn’t know you needed to warm it up for a while to get it to be stable. People are so fortunate today to have experts like you that are so willing to share their knowledge and experience. Thank you. You are a bit late for me though but then again, you weren’t born yet when I was in high school!
I do not have any knowledge about circuitry at all, yet you got me curious about the filter chokes and their measurement. Man, I wish I hadn't. You gotta know about induction, its importance to the circuits and measuring the henries. You sir are a very learned person of electronics. You are one of the people we need to have around if the asteroid hits or a super corona ejection happens. What a radio. Incredible restoration and patience paying off. I guess some guy in the 1960s did a very unimpressive restoration using what was available to him in those days. Yet you showed his errors and fixed everything. I'm still glowing with transferred satisfaction you must have experienced. You convey it so well.
This video has been fantastic to watch. You are a great teacher, it's one thing to know all this stuff and quite another to transfer it to others. I'm new to messing with old radios and amplifiers and really know very little but this video taught me such a lot. Just the snippet of information about replacing old paper wax capacitors with newer polypropylene equivalents has had me smiling for ages, I now know what to look for. I have an old Lowery organ I'm looking to restore and just that bit of info will help no end. Thanks for taking you time to share your knowledge.
What a fun video. Most of your technical talk is above my knowledge, but I'm learning. I so love your vintage equipment and this radio. So much prettier than modern equipment. Thanks for this.
You should have been a highly respected professor in a highly respected university.Many people with the same talent of you will probaby proceed in the same way but the way you would implement the level of kwnoledge,quality,care and excellence in work will definetely belong to somebody with a special gift to perpetuate this discipline over generations.Greetings from Romania,my best wishes for somebody who really is up to the job!!!
This brings back so many memories. My late father picked up a Hammarlund HQ 120 that was on a ship and was burned out with the ship. He completely restored it and used it for nearly20 years as his AM receiver together with his AM transmitter as a ham. From around 1949 to 1969. I used to listen to the most amazing radio station on it. I absolutely loved it. In the early 1970's he donated it to a museum. Thanks for the memories.
Yet another truly fascinating video. Although a project of this magnitude is beyond both my knowledge and my test equipment it has taught me so much and boosted my confidence to tackle the projects I have lined up. Thank you again Mr Carlson.
Thank you so much, I took electronics shop in high school back when shop class still existed in the 80's, sad to see it mostly gone now here in the US, you have rekindled a past love. Now retired/disabled I am re learning where I left off and you have been a HUGE help in re firing old brain cells as well as teaching me so much more. I can't thank you enough. Be well.
I must have missed this one and watched it all last night, absolutely amazing restore how you managed to sort that rats nest out is beyond me, you left my head spinning with your knowledge and skill and your comments when listening to the transmissions at the end was very amusing. Simply the best tech on RU-vid.
Imagine the amount of dedication and absolute time spent on repairing, recapping and simply saving this from the scrap heap this guy took... PLUS he goes in depth and explains every nook and cranny of dangers, safety precautions and how-to's.... Simply remarkable, I'd be done just unsoldered everything old, found new parts that look identical and put em in without thinking... But he goes and checks everything.... Absolutely amazing
Really. And now we know to THINK before changing those select-by-test caps that determine the dial calibration. Still, you have to wonder how a kid like that has learned so many millions of lessons about the intricacies of every generation of electronics. It probably starts with an IQ of at least 150...
You have my full respect , actually I don't know anything about this Ham Radio , i am zero knowledge about you doing now, but i like watching your channel. thanks for sharing your expertise .
I am a mechanical engineer who specializes in central adaptation work ... I am 57 years old from Egypt and admire your work very much ... I hope you will prepare a video explaining all the principles about signals and frequencies and the work of all parts of the radio and radio circuits to benefit the millions of people that love this field. ... my best wishes for happiness and health
I love the long-form content more than the short stuff; the more in-depth, the better. I appreciate that things take many times as long to do when you're trying to fiddle with a camera, so I understand why it might not always be practical, but I don't bat an eyelash at watching a 3 hour video, especially on technical stuff.
+Bill Moran Thanks for the nice comment Bill! I do agree with your statement about technology. It's very important to understand this early era, as it's a stepping stone to today's technology. This is what modern electronic's teachers are forgetting, or care not to mention. "It's very hard to climb a ladder with the first number of steps missing."
I`ve dabbled in simple repairs for many years and i`m a huge lover of audio, i gotta say i`m in awe of your work and how you describe articulately what you`re doing, So amazing to see such a historic piece of radio equipment faithfully repaired and restored!!! Amazing work and video Mr. Carlson!!!
this guy is absolutely brilliant in repairing old things i learn a lot watching these 1st class youtube videos thank you keep up the good work showing what you can do in restoration job's take care from me kenneth.
When I was a kid I was fascinated with electronics. Even built quite a few Knight Kits my dad brought home from trips to chicago. I wish you had been a neighbor; what fun that would have been. I'm glad I've discovered your wonderful channel, and watch it every night. Thank you for your patient calm explanations. It's greatly appreciated. You have quite a gift.
My first ham radio receiver was a HQ-120 (1967 or so) and it served me for several years - I was in high-school then and I got it cheap from an old ham who was retiring. I fondly remember that beast. I paired it with a Heathkit DX-100 transmitter as I recall. (The DX-100 nearly killed me while I was working on it on once -long story.) I ended up becoming an RF engineer specializing in radio design - I have always been in awe of the engineering that went into some of the older radios. (The HQ-120 is from the 1930's! ) You remind me of some of my cohorts from the 60's - Only with a lab full of equipment we could only dream of! Respect, -Bud
And yea as I poke my fingers into the 6146B final cage I will thank God that I only touched the 600 volt plate cap so lightly that I only received an arc-shape burn on my finger, but not hard enough to throw me back across the room because then my parents would have yelled at me.
I am thoroughly impressed by your videos. Everything you show is so full of attention to detail, of love for quality and brilliant as well as down-to-earth. Just wonderful. Of all the electronic channels I have seen, yours really stands out to me as THE master craftsmanship channel.
Quite the marathon but worth the effort. Excellent tutorial and a great result. I had a vintage AR88D which never sounded as good as your set. Great work, thanks for sharing your experience.
Just found your channel not too long ago, though I don’t know anything your talking about, I’m in awe of your expertise and teaching ability. I’m amazed at what I don’t know, but glad that there are people out there with such knowledge.
Even as an Extra Class Ham operator I'm not remotely qualified to comment on your obvious expertise. But let me say I am very impressed with your electronics knowledge.
I had a hammerlund radio many years ago and gave it to a ham operator Mr carlson you are a great Teacher keep up the good work. Whwn it comes to stability Tubes are agreat especially for audio .
Wow, what a good job of restoring that receiver! Back in my teen days, Hammarlunds were "the" radio to own. Back then, we called this type of general-coverage, all-band radio a "communications receiver".
Man I love seeing equipment restored like this, especially with this perfection. I like the part when you've replaced all the components and it looks all neat. 👍
Hi, Paul, I watched your entire RU-vid presentation on restoring your vintage Hammarlund receiver - I was spellbound the whole time. It's obvious to me how much you love and respect these old radios, and how much knowledge you bring to bear on making them right again. Your accent makes me think you're from Canada or a part of the U.S. bordering on Canada. Love your laid-back manner and great commitment to making yourself well understood to your viewers in an enjoyably relaxed, down-to-earth and unpretentious style as you go about your work. Totally admirable, and so refreshing to see in this era when deceitfulness, shallowness and insincerity seem to have gotten such a powerful grip on our society. Knowing there are genuine people like yourself in our midst is most heartening. I share your enthusiasm for restoring old radios. I just completely stripped to the bare chassis and rebuilt with all-new wiring, tube sockets, resistors and capacitors a sadly deteriorated, rusted and filthy hulk of a Zenith Chassis 1001, originally from their Model 880 console radio but also one that Zenith used in their highly sought-after 1934-vintage Model 835 Tombstone Radio. I reused all the irreplaceable parts such as the 4-gang tuning condenser, power and I.F. transformers, bandswitch-and-coil assembly and loudspeaker (which was so bad I had to have it re-coned). It was a joy to put this set back together and get it working again close to as it should. (There are some problems such as oscillation in the shortwave bands - but overall I'm very happy that I was able to get this rusted ruin of a chassis working again. One major thing that I've learned from watching your Hammarlund video is how important it is to not simply peak I.F.s with a meter and consider that part of the alignment properly done. I confess that I fed Zenith's specified 485 kHz I.F. frequency into the set and peaked its THREE I.F. transformers using nothing more than the set's shadow-meter (a mechanical tuning eye) as my one-and-only guide! LOL. I'll have to get myself some better and more sophisticated visual alignment aids! Again, I can't tell you what a delightful time I had watching your Hammarlund video. Bravo for a job well done! Jos Callinet.
Thanks for stopping by Jos! Glad you enjoyed the video! Sounds like you have put lots of time into that Zenith. Nice to see others have the radio bug as bad as I do :^) Stop by anytime!
I have one of these, belonged to my grandfather who was an EE. He designed capacitors, coils, filters, transformers among other things but inductors and capacitors was his specialty. I recapped it years ago, even though it was "working" with original paper caps. He replaced the filter caps in the 90's before he passed away. I took after him, been in electronics professionally since 2005 and tinkering since a kid. carry on, love that like me you work on anything...regardless of how old it is. Most of my repair jobs today are vintage equipment that cant be replaced, don't work on many TV's anymore....well solid state TV's that would be.
Thanks a million for the video, this is one of the reasons I joined your patreon. I always learn a lot by watching, whilst I man never use the knowledge, my father always told me that learning is the one thing that they can never take away from you. He was a very wise man.
As a radio amateur, it's really neat to get the deep dive. I spend most of my time on 2 meters/70cm FM, but have an HF rig and have contemplated a good 11m [or 10-12m] CB for on the road. It's fun to listen, and cheaper than ever to get into the hobby even if it requires dusting off and learning an old "boat anchor" rig. The only downside to a receiver is that you'll eventually want a transceiver 😎👍if you really enjoy radio.
Gosh - I was 14 when I wrote my Ham lic. When you were chatting about the lack of tone on CW. During my getting ready for the test, I listened to a lot of code. Buzz box I called them. Mercury - My Transmitter had two top pin tubes. I forget the numbers. I was looking for the gear last year. [Dad never tossed much, but the Tube gear did get turfed. ] It was 90 watts per tube - A pair gave me 180 watts. When I keyed - the purple glow was welcome sight. It really Buzzed like heck. My receiver was another hand built rig of my dad. I certainly enjoyed it 45 yrs ago. In the summer I am back at the lake - receiver there will give me some use after I spent the winter relearning CW. Cheers to you!!
Spent a wonderful 4th of July watching this fantastic restoration video, thank you so much for sharing this project of love. Half way through, I remembered an old Drake receiver in the garage that could use some love. 🙂
"...man, that's crunchy..." and then "...yikes! That doesn't sound healthy!!!" - HAHA - Loved the WHOLE video! Your ability to pass your knowledge on the understanding on the components is phenomenal! I know it's an older video - BUT thanks for the great "teaching"....
Awesome work as always. This radio looks like a high end professional tube amp or studio compressor such as the Shadow Hills. Of course the design of these units is based on 1930s luxury gear.
I loved your presentation Carlson.. Informative and entertaining. I want one of those, a Collins! Tuned pre-selector, band-pass tuning, Xtal controlled converters and dual conversion. Mmmm, gud!
I've watched almost all of your videos and I have to say that I am incredibly impressed by your knowledge and how far you will go to resurrect old gear that most people would just use for parts or throw away. I'm a technician/engineer of 38 years, so I can truly appreciate your skill and passion for what you do. I started out with electronics when I was 10 years old and it has been a life-long passion of mine. I have a shop much like yours in my home and I spend time in it almost every day. It's my "happy place". LOL Thanks for all the great videos. My only wish is that we lived near each other to share knowledge and talk shop from time to time. (I'm in Illinois, USA) You, sir, are a true master of the art and I'm proud to be a peer of yours. This specific video has to be one of your best. You have my genuine respect and admiration.
BTW..... Many years ago, I acquired an HQ-170 in near mint condition. It was in its original box including the owner's manual. I painstakingly restored and aligned it. I had a close friend that was interested in shortwave radio and I loaned it to him. When I asked for him to return it, he "couldn't find it". (It's really not something that you could easily misplace.) I later found out that he sold it. Needless to say, we're not friends anymore. I sure miss the glowing, warm sound it produced. I've tried to replace it, but I'll never find another in that condition. Watching this video made me miss that radio even more. :-)
Great Video and shouldn't be lost to new viewers of the channel. You learn us so much about electronics one day when i'm not short on my monthly food/bills i'd love to be as patron and support you and future projects. Thank you for the content and your time.
This one is particularly interesting to me as I am currently working on an R-388/URR which has some similar features such as the crystal phasing. Someone has previously modified it by converting the BFO into a product detector and I am in the process of trying to restore it to the original BFO. It's a beast of a machine, worked even before I cleaned the mud wasp nests out of it and only 3 of the 18 tubes were bad! Thanks for the tips, tricks and detailed explanations! 73- W3VAC
What a great description, I really like that. Binge Channel. Cool. My (other) favourite 'binge' channel is 'Shango066', takes a bit to become accustomed, but he is another sort of genius.
@@danielthomas3057 Daniel, Shango for me transcends electronics and is simply a genius. I have been an electronic design engineer for 35 yrs and agree Mr Carlson is a fine engineer with much to recommend. He is excellent. There are many things that annoy me about him too. How he pronounces Farad for instance...aarghh! But it's obvious you still have a lot to learn and maybe one day you will see the light.
Thanks for the comment Michael Hawthorne and Graham Clarke! I would reply to your posts, but for some reason there have been no "reply" tabs to some posts? I wondering if this is a setting hidden somewhere? I'm glad the capacitor info helped!
Good Job on restoring someone's misguided handiwork. You did a thorough probe on this radio and you tuned that old radio very good, Thanks for sharing your video this does help others.
su pyrow Thanks for the nice comment! The Hakko 470 de-soldering tool below also has a similar mod. It cycles much faster. I used a 74HC04..... quick and easy.
You sir, are speaking like you created Short wave radio technology. And clearly have experience bringing up reasons for damages and repairs. Very fun to watch. Love you'r passion and ability to teach.
Amazing that such a young looking man has such depth of electric and electronic knowledge and understanding. You don't look the part! Had you been talking about surfing, you'd fit the part much better. It's great to know that our country has men with know how. I was wondering if you have ever restored an Army walkie talkie or telephone--which I imagine being much easier to restore to some degree. Great video because it's very interesting.
Would love to hear , and whenever i Ask it seems RU-vid’s algorithm finds the answer video , how you learned this stuff so well. Was your dad an electrical guy too. Or did you just follow your passion and go to school for this ? And work in the industry ? My guess is that you’ve done the video that totally answers these questions. Lol. Because like I said. RU-vid seems to read these comments and populates my board the next time I come on YT. Lol. Your videos are so incredibly dense. Not easy to understand but not totally over the head either. And NOT BORING ! At least not to me I keep saying I would have given my left arm to have these volumes 35 years ago when I began my fascination with electrical devices. Especially rf. Thx for putting your time into this. It’s never too late. I hope !
your knowledge is unbelievable, is your trade electronics repair? Beautiful restoration on this great old relic. It will probably work for another 70 years or so.
Brought me back to the 1950’s when I got my HAM licenses and went on the air. Had a Hammarlund later model, a National receiver, a 75A4, Ranger with 11 meters,and then Drake transceiver for mobile. Miss the days and the fun with friends.
Loved it....Have no idea about 90% of what he said but found it fascinating!! Would love to have a great vintage radio like this one. This guy really knows his stuff!!!!!
Thanks Chris!, If your interested in another, check out this one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4kT57s0kCAk.html This is my longest video to date, with another similar alignment procedure. I think the most in-depth alignment was performed on the Sony CRF-320, I also have a video on that as well. I had to design test equipment to align that.
I watched this years ago and youtube just suggested I watch it again. I'm glad I did. My dad has one of these receivers that I used to use back in the 70s and it was an awesome receiver. So I may offer to do a rebuild for my dad as it's not working too well these days. Thanks for this. Wish I could like it again.
Absolutely awesome.Your not only a good tech, You a awesome teacher. I love the way you show what your doing and explain your train of thinking. please keep on doing what your doing.
What a beautiful radio and a great job restoring it. It looks amazing and performs very nicely. Thanks for the video. I've just subscribed, 73 from Australia! Craig VK3CRG
I would say that you have very strong knowledge in the electronics field and many thanks for spending time to make such great electronics related RU-vid videos. May God Bless you always
"...and then pour me some hot bacon grease on top..." Yikes!..Hahahha!.. You are truly the Vacuum Tube King! Thank you for another Awesome highly detailed restore!
