Topband: Receivers for 160M

[Jerry T Dowell]

Perhaps the best RX for topband is one-of-a-kind. I had a Squires-Sanders
SS-1R that had been owned by Sherwood. He had modified it for 160M by
sacrificing one of the general coverage  bands. Unfortunately, I never did
try it on topband while I owned it. It was, however, the best RX that I have
ever used on 80M. It would dig sigs out of S9 summer static that were
totally inaudible on other receivers such as the 75A4. Part of the reason
was its outstanding AGC, the best I have ever seen. It was also extremely
linear....the IMD chacteristics were probably far better than any
present-day commercially available receivers normally used by hams, although
unfortunately I never did run lab tests on it. Neither did Bob. I still
regret selling that RX....it was superior to my R7 in digging sigs out under
tough condx, and an absolute joy to listen to on SSB and CW.

The 75A4 seemed to be an inferior receiver to most in many respects. Filter
blowby, poor AGC (even after modification), IMD, etc., though I never did
try one on 160. A Drake 2B did a much better job in general, though they had
roughly equivalent IMD and the 'A4 was more selective. It would be
interesting to see how the highly modified 'A4s stack up.

Jerry   AI6L




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