I just got my HW-101 back on the air. When I was a kid, my dad got he, my brother, and me one of these at a Hamfest for $50 after we outgrew our HW-16. This isn’t that rig, though. We can’t find it.
I picked this one up and, even though it still has issues, I’ve been making DX, POTA, Route 66 QSOs with it. Been getting good signal reports too! It’s fun but, after tuning and not having any audio filtering, I’ve really come to appreciate modern radios.
If you’re just getting started in the hobby but are intimidated by tube rigs, don’t be. They’re worth considering (tube availability might be a challenge though).
(For those who are curious, that is a real Astatic D-104 mic but the amp has been removed so it can work with the HW-101).
Never had a tube rig myself, but i have heard tubes can handle higher SWRs without issue. Get solid states above 3:1 or so and you are either going to have the rig cut tx power way down or burn them out.
