[HBR] overloading the HBR

[Brian Burns]

Hello Bill,

~ Hey Brian, I thought you were going to build one yourself???  : ) Weren't
you saving the parts for one???  

Yes, and I still am, but the pesky little business of making a living keeps
getting in the way. Also, since my teaching business went into the tank
along with the economy, I'm trying to do it by actually making guitars---a
tough row to hoe. 

Yes, I am in parts-collecting mode, and thanks to the generosity of the
members of the HBR list, I doing quite well at that. First priority for me
is to get setup with a place to work, and with adequate test equipment. 

I spent my entire junior year in high school building a Byron Goodman double
conversion band imaging design. That was in Redwood City, CA 1955-56, at
Sequoia High School, which offered radio shop. I could never get it to work
because the shop teacher was ignorant of superhets, and there was no test
equipment outside of VOM's. I'm determined not to let that happen again.

So far I have built a nice test bench from an old solid core door, with
shelving above and below. I just got it wired for power this weekend. 

I've acquired a signal generator from Ian, and a scope from a guitar making
student of mine, plus an Eico regulated power supply. Then there is the AADE
L//C meter, a grid dipper, and a couple of VOM's. I've got a tube tester,
and a beautiful old Hickok 209A VTVM that need to be restored. 

Though I am in excellent health for a 75 year old, I don't have the stamina
I had as a younger man. When I take a break to rest I read articles on
receivers, mostly downloaded from the QST archives from back in the day. 

One of the popular notions back then was the idea of attenuating strong
adjacent channel signals in the front end, before they got amplified by an
RF or IF stage, and before they could cause the usual havoc. I keep looking
at the front end regenerative stages in the HBR series, and wondering how
easily they might be overloaded. 

So, I'm likely to make only one communications receiver, and given that I am
the slow, meticulous type, it's likely to be a several years long project.
There are a lot of things to like about the HBR series, not the least of
which is people on the HBR list like yourself that are willing to help.

Cheers,

Brian 


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