[HBR] My New Old HBR

[William L. Hopkins]

Dear Scott and Friends,

Funny you should mention the persistent tone that you can zero out by the bfo.
Well, guess what?  I am working on the Heathkit Comanche MR-1 rcvr (in a pair with
the Cheyenne MT-1) that I have promised myself I would spiff up.  I had taken out
the 5 electrolytics and wanted to replace them.  Each was about 8 mfd. at various
voltage ratings.  I replaced the ones close to the 300 volt power source (all are to
ground), but forgot the twin 8-8 mfd caps over between the MIXER and the crystal
filter, going into the first IF.  I had this very loud schriek every time I switched
on the BFO for SSB/CW listening.  Well, my sharp eyes spotted where I had snipped
off the two caps.  Once I replaced them, the problem went away.

So I would suggest you look for open caps (electrolytics) to ground in this area of
your HBR16.  I'll be building my own this summer, so wish me luck.

ciao
bill hopkins
AA2YV
rochester ny


"Freeberg, Scott (STP)" wrote:

> HBR Friends,
>
> I took Thursday and Friday off last week for some 'radio days'.  I spent
> several hours Thursday cleaning up my newly acquired HBR-16 that arrive in
> the mail earlier in the week.  I pulled the chassis out of the cabinet.
> There was dust and stuck on grime in there but no rust or corrosion. The
> chassis cleaned up shiny and bright, same for the tube shields.
>
> The chassis and front panel construction is top notch and very professional
> looking.  I put the cabinet in the basement sink and scrubbed it with soap
> and water.  It came out looking good.  After it dried I followed up up with
> an application of WD-40 on the entire cabinet surface.  WB-40 replenishes
> the moisture in the dried out paint and brings back the lusture.  I don't
> know, is it natural for an HBR to have a 'lusture' ??   Maybe only fancy
> schmancy radios have lusture :^)   The knobs are the same ones from the QST
> article with the exception of having dial skirts on them.  The knobs cleaned
> up fine.  The radio looks great.  It is almost an exact copy of the original
> HBR photo's on Kees website.
>
> I disconnected the ac power receptacle on the chassis rear and put on a 3
> wire cord.  I didn't even need to drill a hole for the power cord. There was
> a grommeted hole just waiting for it. Its show time.  The HBR powered up
> right away and I was surprised to hear good sounding signals on 40 meters.
> I put the 20 meter coils in and spent a couple of hours listening to 20
> meter cw and ssb.  The radio appears to be stable, the cw signals sounded
> very good, meaning good tone quality, good frequency response.  The National
> dial tuning is alot heavier than I like.  I did grease up the mechanism but
> it didn't make a noticeable difference.  I ran some brief side by side
> comparisions with my Collins 75S3B and I found the HBR to be as sensitive as
> the 3B on all signals that I compared.  I'll put the URM25D signal generator
> on and see how sensitive it is.  I copied quite a bit of 20 meter cw DX that
> day.  There is something special listening to cw on a homebrew receiver,
> even if it was built by someone else!! It must sound even more special when
> you build it yourself.
>
> There is a weak signal present all the time that I need to attenuate or
> eliminate.  To avoid it, I adjusted the BFO to zero beat it out.  It
> probably has something to do with the the first or 2nd oscillator.  I need
> to review my receiver theory.  Its after the RF amp because the RF gain does
> not affect it, but before the mixer state because the signal is amplified
> along with everything else when the mixer gain is adjusted.
>
> No coils were mentioned when I bought the radio so I assumed I'd be winding
> my own.  I was pleasantly surprised to find 4 sets of coils, 10, 15, 20, 40
> meters.  All in all I am really impressed with the radio and it will be a
> pleasure to put on the air.
>
> I just about blew my ear drums out that first time.  I plugged my headphones
> in the rear jack that I thought was for the phones.  I know I know (now) its
> for the speaker.  Anyway, nothing came out so I switched the front panel
> speaker/headphone switch to speaker.  The volume was set high........
> Ouch....
>
> I'll take some close up photos and ask Kees to put them on his website.
>
> I don't know who built the radio.  The seller didn't know and I didn't find
> any name or callsign on the cabinet or chassis.  Too bad as it would have
> been fun to find out who made it.  He did an incredible job.
>
> So just as I'm starting to get excited about all this homebrew stuff, Eddy
> Swynar VE3CUI - VE3XZ sent me 8 emails containing 16 photos of his homebrew
> receiver, transmitter, and vfo.  I think Eddys trying to motivate me.   Now
> there is a gorgeous well made homebrew station.  Eddy is a master builder
> and has built a beautiful station.
> I just gotta build me some of that :^)   Thanks Eddy.
>
> 73,  Scott WA9WFA
> Proud HBR-16 owner, Hopeful HBR-13 builder
> ************************************
> Visit the HBR Receiver Web Site with over 100 pictures of receivers and
> construction notes...... via http://www.qsl.net/k5bcq/
>
> Retrieve reflector archived data via http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/hbr

--
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