HW-30 "Twoer" Superhet RX Kit Info Needed.

[Herman N4Ch]

I'm hoping someone out there has some info on a "kit for a kit" that I
recently obtained, after looking for one for 37 years.

In 1966, I had just finished building a Heathkit HW-30 Twoer, and my first
QSO was with a local, all of about 2 miles away.   The amateur I had just worked
invited me over to his QTH, and he showed me the rig he was using, which was
another HW-30, but this one was different.   It had an additional knob
(located just above where the Heathkit plastic oval logo badge used to be), with a
silver and red tuning scale.   I asked the owner (25 years a SK by now) what the
knob was for, and he said that he had installed an "upgrade" kit, made by
Lawrence Engineering, which turned the receiver from a superregen to a superhet.
 I never got to look inside, but always remembered what that dial looked
like, and had been looking for one of these kits (or a Twoer with the
modification)  for the past 30-35 years.   I finally found one at Dayton this past May.
The seller knew absolutely nothing about the radio (he was selling off an esta
te), and of course he had no paperwork.   Anyway, as the owner of this thing,
I'd like to try to get it going.   Besides the extra knob and dial scale on
the front (and a couple extra holes here and there), the radio looks "stock",
until U slide the chassis out of the cabinet.   The "kit" consists of a large
vertically-mounted chassis with 3 tubes (6U8, 6BH6, and 12AU7), several coils, a
4.5MHz I.F. transformer, and of course a variable capacitor, which goes to
the added knob.   There are some modifications to the original RF amp /
superregen detector  circuitry, to allow the reconfiguration.   Unfortunately, there
were several loose wires, and the appearance that the receiver was in the midst
of being troubleshot and then set aside.

I'd like to know if anyone out there has one of these "superhet Twoers", and,
better yet, a copy of the paperwork that Lawrence Engineering (of Hamden, CT)
provided.   I'm guessing that the kit was probably offered for just a short
time, but as yet I have found no ads in back issues of QST or CQ.   ANY info
would be welcome.

Other than this kit, and the Dynalab conversion kit (from around 1966).....it
allowed the HW-12-22-32 monobander to be converted to triband (20, 40, 75), I
know of no modification kits that were offered to internally modify any other
Heath amateur gear.   By the way......I do have a copy of the Dynalab manual
if anyone needs it......I found a copy about 5-8 years after I got a
monobander that had been changed to triband.

73,
Herman, N4CH.

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