[Premium-Rx] Our cherished receivers

[Michael O'Beirne]

Hi chaps from a very wet London this evening.  Summer?

I agree with Larry's comments yesterday.  The undeniable fact is that the 
figures for modern amateur gear are getting better by the month.  The recent 
detailed technical review of the K3 by Peter Hart in RadCom, July 2008, is 
an extreme case in point.  How many of our receivers can deliver a dynamic 
range of 101dB in a 500Hz bandwidth at just 2kHz off tune?  I suggest none 
and by a fair margin.

But (and this is the killer but) is such gear getting any more fun to use? 
I suggest not.  As I mentioned in my last post, a K3 in a 19 inch box built 
to WJ or Racal quality would be wonderful - but dream on.  Perhaps a K4?

There is an obvious analogy with cars.  Would you rather own a pristine 
Silver Cloud or a modern BMW?  The former are not too expensive to buy but 
cost a fortune to run, and what a car.  The latter car is expensive but 
reasonable to run and has all the gizmos.  However you can always fit a 
satnav into an old Rolls with skill.

And this makes me wonder whether we can improve the sparkle of our older 
gear with useful gizmos hanging on the IF outputs - such as improved 
detectors and waterfall displays.  Already a Racal bargraph from the 1980s 
with tuning increments of 10Hz will transform the tuning of any receiver.

Any ideas guys?

73s
Michael
G8MOB