[HBR] Under construction HBR-?? -- And the G3RKK Delemma.

[hbr@mailman.qth.net]

Bill, that's going to be a nice project; you're an inspiration to us all!

As mentioned in my last, I have a G3RKK receiver (see the 4th ed. 
RSGB book) that I bought as a result of a listing here by Byron 
Tatum of Texas.   Both of us thought at first that it was a G2DAF 
job but its the (probably rarer) UK bandswitching version of W6TC's 
work.

My first take was "it's original -- let it be."    

Then I looked at the wiring job and thought "It's a mess, but maybe 
can be re-kitted."   

Since then, I've realized that this unit wasn't built with new parts to 
start with.   Sure enough, the big stuff is all original UK parts -- the 
power transformer is the tall-stack unit you see in the original, it 
has the beautiful Eddystone 898 dial, all those Electroniques IFTs; 
even the Electroniques bandswitching front end.  

But the whole works is built on a badly done steel chassis and all 
the small parts are this-side-of-the-pond makes, evidently salvaged 
from a few old BC sets. (Some were *unfamiliar* makes -- that's 
why I thought they were U.K.)   

Now I've done a bit of that myself -- I usually use at least some 
small parts from a previous project.  (Wouldn't surprise me to find 
that a few of the more durable items have been circulating since I 
was a teenager, back when RCA was right proud of the 6146!)   But 
this thing's a mess, even the wiring's a bit o'this and a bit o'that, 
and because the small parts weren't good quality to start with, I 
can't look forward to trying to simply repair it stage by stage.   At 
some point you're talking about 'jacking up the hood ornament and 
driving a new car under.'    

Rather than go there, I think I'll strip it, clean up the chassis work, 
repaint, and start again, using the major parts.   It can become a 
good looking unit with no more than a file and some paint; I'm 
pretty sure of that.

The other possible angle would be to use the dial and few other 
major items and go straight for a G2DAF.   Since that's a tunable 
1st IF rather than a conventional bandswitching/tunable front end, 
it's a major design change; some good stuff would be left over (and 
some would have to be acquired)  and there'd be a major overlap 
with the design of the General Coverage HBR, already (very 
slooooo-ly) under construction.

I'll probably re-kit with all new small stuff.  My wife will be out of 
town for 10 days in early May; while that doesn't give me more time 
it does mean more control of the time I have and if the weather's 
suitable for painting, maybe ...

My first thought was that this set must have been built in the U.K. 
shipped back as a re-kit and rebuilt with local small parts.  But 
looking more closely a few minutes ago, I discovered a label on the 
back of the front end assembly with 'Canada' on it.  So I'm 
guessing it was built there.   There may be a few more clues when 
it's disassembled -- there's more stuff on that label that will be 
visible when the front end is out of the chassis.

Walt Hutchens
KJ4KV