[HBR] Cost Of Homebrewing?

[hbr@mailman.qth.net]

In the main I agree with Jim that the HBR's were not cheap to build.   
He makes a number of good points:

1.  The change in the cost of living makes 1960 prices look a lot 
smaller than they were at the time.   According to my World 
Almanac, in 1960 the Consumer Price Index was about 89; today 
over 500 -- a 5.6 fold increase.   I know that my pay in 1961 as a new 
Ensign, USN, was $222.30/month; it didn't go very far in a radio store.

2.  Small quantity prices were steep compared to the prices that 
manufacturers were paying.   

3.  Homebrew sets had low resale value -- however, one factor is that 
most homebrew was junk.   How often today do you see a nice 
homebrew rig of any sort compared to the ones that were trash the 
day they were finished?   

I'm not, however, completely convinced that homebrewing a receiver 
didn't make financial sense in (say) 1960 or 65, at least for the ham 
with a decent general junkbox.   Unfortunately it turns out that I don't 
have the right catalog after all: Maybe Jim would tote up the 
following, as regards an HBR-11 or 13?

Tuning cap, 12 coil forms (4 bands) and associated APC (or are they 
MAPC?) caps.

IF transformers (tho these could have been obtained as I did from 
command receivers)

National ACN dial -- that was the recommendation, tho the 898 was 
a far better dial.   Note that the clever constructor had several 
choices for 'free' or 'nearly free' dials -- the command receiver tuning 
cap or the mechanism from a control box, string-and-pulley schemes 
(which could be stolen from a dead BC receiver), and so on.

S-meter

Tubes

Estimate of the small parts -- silver mica caps, 1/2 watt resistors, 
paper caps ...

I assume that the power transformer, sockets, switches and other 
controls, switches, line cord, wire, and so on would be available in 
the junkbox.   

For comparason, the Heath Mohawk was $275 in kit form (speaker 
accessory $10).   The comparable manufactured receivers were 
higher -- SX-101 in 1958, $395.  Both of these were double 
conversion receivers on the scheme of the HBR-series -- but of 
course they were bandswitching sets.

And for a benchmark on what a well-stocked junkbox can do for you, 
the immediate cost of the 1MHBR was about $30 -- plywood, 
shellac, a few machine screws, some paper capacitors and a few 
other small parts. 'Course I've been collecting parts for about 40 
years, but (OTOH) most of the collection came from hamfests and 
junker sets, at pennies on the dollar.   I swapped a spare 85kcs IFT 
with a helpful HBR-lister to get another set of coils for the front end.   
Only the small parts and power transformers were new current 
production, and most of that was recycled from earlier projects.  
There is no sense today in building with vintage resistors and paper 
caps unless you are going for the vintage look under the chassis and 
are willing to accept vintage unreliability as part of the price. 

I do think that it would have been a greater service to *develop* the 
HBR design around surplus parts.    If you replace the cost of the 
tuning cap, dial, and IFTs with the cost of a couple of parts-only 
command sets -- say $5 each in 1960 -- the thing gets a lot cheaper.

It's very interesting that the RSGB handbook/G2DAF receivers were 
built by so many hams although the design is *more* expensive than 
the HBR-series (two mechanical filters in the original!) and the British 
ham population in the 1960 period must have been only a fraction of 
ours.  I wonder what the prices for their manufactured gear were like 
at the time?

Walt
KJ4KV