[HBR] Beam deflection mixers

[Shoppa, Tim]

WV1D publishes some Squires-Sanders SS-1R test results:

http://www.w1vd.com/SS-1R.html

When used in single conversion, it beats the pants off everything else out there at the time in terms of dynamic range. (Well, except a R-390.)

But in the 60's specsmanship was all about sensitivity (uV then... MDS today.). Even today we see folks bragging about their receiver's ability to pick up 0.03uV on the bench... and somehow ignoring that the atmospheric noise on the lower bands is 100x stronger :-). 

Of your two beam deflection mixer schemes, it seems to me too that method (a) would offer highest linearity. But method (b) was surprisngly popular. The real test would be a comparison via measurements.