Take a look at that beautiful rig in the bottom of the cover pictures. (A closer shot appears below.) That is an HRO dial, right? Or is it?
No, it is not. In the picture we see the homebrew receiver designed and built during the 1960s by Rudolf Fishcer, DL6WD. It is magnificent in every respect. Because I have been working with the HRO dial and gearbox given to me by Armand WA1UQO, the tuning dial on this receiver caught my attention.
Here is what DL6WD says about this part of his project: "The main tuning gear was built around a BC-221 tuning capacitor and reduction gear. The counter dial and tuning knob are the result of four weeks of labor, The counter dial reads in tens of kHz, where the main tuning knob has a calibration of 200 Hz per division, from an HRO inspiration." The counter is in the little window to the upper left of the tuning knob. The window to the upper right is a phase-lock indicator. (See below.)
By the way, by the time DL6WD got finished with this all solid state receiver it weighed in at 52 pounds. Rudolf noted that "excessive shielding pays in electrical performance, but not in weight!"
DL6WD earns the title "Homebrew Hero."
I LOVE those old ARRL books...
ReplyDeleteEd KC8SBV
I have that book. I built a homebrew amplifier for 10 with a pair of 811a's. There is a project in that book for a single tube 811a amp that was the inspiration for my homebrew project. Also featured is a linear with a huge single 3-1000 tube. I read the article about the "engineer's receiver" with the HRO looking dial, but what about the band switch made from a TV channel turret containing all the coils and crystal for each hand. Awesome and clever. This and DeMaw's Solid state design is probably my favorite.
ReplyDelete73's
Dan, km5sk