[HBR] Blog post about HBR receivers

[RogDog]

Hey!
   When I built my HBR-16 around 1961, I did it because I could not afford any of the high quality rigs available at that time. Of course, every young ham lusted for the Collins stuff, but it was way out of my reach. I'd been using an old (1946) Admiral console broadcast/short wave receiver (Band-width;a million kilohertz) and an old Eico signal generator set to around ;-) 455 khz as a BFO. Now you want to talk touchy tuning for CW, you had to hope the dog next door didn't sneeze or pound the floor with his tail. So, out of despiration I opted for the HBR-16. I was pretty good at kit building by then, but the broadcast receiver I'd build with PNP transistors out of a magazine article never did work.
   It took awhile, but the HBR came to life and I was very proud of the results. No fancy dial, and a few 'bites' while changing coils, but the dog-gone thing worked and worked well. Today, I would be able to afford the fancy rigs and would probably go that direction if I had the desire. However, nothing I've ever done since, (other than family), has given me the sense of accomplishment that the HBR experience did.
   That said, I think that, even today, the HBR-xx series can give the newer stuff a run for the money, and what if something breaks? If you can build it you can fix it. A lot of that fancy stuff can be repaired too, but not as easily as an HBR-xx.
Rog Dog KB2ZXY

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