Scored a Heathkit HW-8

I have been looking for a transceiver in Heathkit HW QRP series to round out my collection of Heathkit amateur radio equipment. I settled on looking for an HW-8.

The Heathkit HW-8

The HW-7, first in the series, had a number of issues and limitations. The HW-8 was a much improved design.

The Heathkit HW-7

The HW-9, which came later, is much rarer, and had the brown color scheme of the last generation of Heathkits with I don't find attractive. There is an HW-99 which is even rarer, is in the brown scheme, and is said to suffer from some serious drift problems. It is also not a QRP transceiver.

The Heathkit HW-9

I scored an HW-8 on eBay which was in great condition. It came with the original manual and even the original box! Interestingly, while it came from Phoenix, Arizona, the box indicated it was from the Heath Company store in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. That is where I grew up and got my ham radio license - I made many visits to that Heathkit store admiring the ham radio, computer, and other kits.

Heathkit HW-8 with original box and manual

I also ordered a CD version of The HW-8 Handbook from QRPARCI, which has a collection of articles on HW-7, HW-8, and HW-9 that were published over the years.

The major features of this rig include:

• 4 band operation (80, 40, 20, 15) on the low end (CW portion) of each band
• about 3 watts of output power
• VFO controlled
• solid state
• direct conversion
• CW only
• requires an external 12V power supply

I'm looking forward to the unit arriving, doing any needed restoration, and getting it on the air. Because it is solid state, it will make a good candidate for trying out some portable operation using battery power. I hope to give that a try at some point this summer.