[HBR] HBR form factor - "mods"

[Shoppa, Tim]

It's not impossible to make homebrew be small, but it can be quite challenging from a mechanical aspect. There are examples in both older ARRL handbooks and QST construction articles of compact band-switching receivers but I really doubt that many were reproduced by average hams in the same way as the HBR.

Putting the plug-in coils on top or even the front of the rig instead of inside would be a possible measure, and not too out-of-sync with other pluggable coil bandchange schemes used. Would probably take at least one external shield with solenoidal air coils. Maybe just maybe toroidal plug-in modules could be used instead.

Perhaps you want, say, a Drake 2B. Every multiband homebrew SOLID-STATE receiver I have built, ended up being bigger than my 2B :-).

Even if you don't want a 2B, take a look inside one. It is an impressively compact and high-functioning, yet still perfectly maintainable, ham band receiver. And there really aren't many compromises in its performance either (a modern ham trying out my 2B complains about reverse tuning on certain bands but personally I don't think that's a "performance" issue at all.)

Much smaller than an HBR but still great for CW or SSB work, check out some of the simpler high-performance homebrew designs in the handbooks of the era. E.g. "Junior Miser's Dream".

Tim N3QE
________________________________________
From: hbr-bounces at mailman.qth.net [hbr-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bill Cromwell [wrcromwell at gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2010 9:27 AM
To: HBR Receiver List
Subject: [HBR] HBR form factor - "mods"

Hi Everybody,

I have been thinking about building an HBR or something based on the
HBR. I have more limited space these days and it's probably not going to
get better in my remaining lifetime. The HBR as-designed is bigger than
I would like to see in my shack. One obvious modification is a separate
power supply that can live under the table and can also power other
gear. While I'm at it, I can include the audio power amp in that
separate power supply.

I would also like to change the form factor to something like the ARC5
command transmitters/receivers. I think HBR would be a bit larger than
those BUT that general shape would better fit into a smaller radio shack
I think. The plug-in coils for band changing do not have to be arranged
near a long band switch so that part of the design really lends itself
to changing the form. The multi-section tuning cap running from front to
back also lends itself to changing the form. Obviously one of those wide
tuning dials is not going to fit. Aside from trying out some
substitutions for 'unobtanium' items I'm not very interested in making
any electrical "improvements" in my Mark I HBR. If we are going to make
major changes electrically we should be building something else...maybe
a Ten Tec Corsair or a Kenwood. My idea of 'mods' is a rearrangement and
redistribution of the circuit 'modules' along with a round dial
mechanism.

Have I overlooked something critical?

Merry Christmas to all.

Bill  KU8H

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