SX 99 Restoration

Another friendly voice on the air belongs to Dave K0RWM in Nebraska City, home of Arbor Day and he'll tell you so.  Once after a net a few of us were chatting when he had mentioned that he has an SX 99 Hallicrafters receiver, patially disassembled tucked away somewhere.  He had mentioned going to the Bellevue flea market in the near future & wondered if I had any interrest in it, that he could dig it up and take it along.  He said the main issue with it was a burned band switch waffer.  Oh boy, I never messed with those yet but there's got to be a first time...I must admit I don't often get too excited with something that is pre disassembled, but the HT 32a I just finished needed  a receiver to go with it and I wasn't finding an SX 101, which looked like a perfect match.  What the heck, another project for a cold winter day...should be fun.

Always nice meeting these guys & had the chance to meet Dave's son too.  Dave & I worked out what I think was a fair price & I took home the radio along with a box of assorted parts, screws & knobs.  By the way, before I forget, I have to mention that Dave took great care to keep the parts with the rig.  When I finshed the project, all items in the box were used & nothing extra.  Nice!

So let the research begin.

I wish I had a good pic of the wafer when I removed it, it was really burned.  The next step was taking the contact strips off of both sides & cleaning up the damaged area.  There was just enough wafer left to reattach the contact strips where they needed to be and then I mixed up some epoxy to replace the missing area of the wafer, set everything just so, and clamped it overnite.  It actually worked pretty well & wish I'd have taken pics of the progress.  The chassis was going to take some time but looked like it would shine when finished. I did find some resistors out of tolerance and replaced a couple old caps too...as usual!  One tube was also replaced.  I couldn't wait to get the switch back together & see if the rig had some life.  Sure enough, it did.  The case was in fair shape as was the face so I just resorted to a good careful cleaning.  The chassis kept looking better as I went.

Wasn't too much longer & it was ready for an alignment.  Kinda stuborn with some adjustments but persistance pays off.  It's actually a fun rig to play with but sure likes to drift.  I really must look into that issue so I don't have to be right in front of it.  A good radio.

So here it is perched above the HT 32a.  Not a matched pair but a fun project, learning experience, and a fine addition to the collection.

Thanks Dave!!!

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