[Boatanchors] Receiver questions

[Ian Wilson]

I was using a Drake 2-B this morning. This receiver has some very nice
things about it
(the preselector, and the variable IF bandwidths). On the other hand, the
product detector
isn't very strong, and I imagine that front end large signal handling is
moderate.

In the 3-30MHz range, what receiver(s) has(ve) the "best" (CW and SSB,
primarily):
  - performance in the presence of large adjacent interferers?
  - product detector?
  - legibility?
  - audio?
  - AGC?
  - product detector?

Using tube-only technology, it seems to me that the best architecture for an
HF receiver would
be something like the Squires-Saunders(sp?) SS1:
  - no RF amplifier
  - beam deflection mixer (single conversion)
  - crystal filter immediately following the mixer
  - frame grid IF amplifier tubes (e.g. 6EH7)
  - beam deflection product detector(?)

Questions:
  - IF- or audio-derived AGC?
  - audio? (Single-ended triode for AM? <g>)
  - single conversion means problems with oscillator stability, or
difficulties
    with birdies if using heterodyne schemes. Double conversion is much
easier
    but significantly weakens the front end performance. What to do?
  - how useful are audio CW filters?

I would like to look at real circuits, so observations about receivers for
which
schematics are readily accessible would be helpful.

73, ian K3IMW