I wondered abt the same raising of B voltage in the R-808 / GRC-14 receiver. Some of the tubes, per manual spec, look to be starved. The manual also says the number of IF stages are required because of the low individual stage gain.

But - the weight of this beast and the need for extender cables even to do a simple alignment, means i really should farm out this project, while there's still any demand at all for such things.