[Heath] Heath AR-3

[Terry Perdue]

I've got to add my memories of the AR-3, which was my first receiver. I 
bought mine in 1959, when I was in the 9th grade, and had it next to my 
bed, with a longwire running through the window screen, and the chassis 
'grounded' to the furnace register in the floor under the window. (I 
used to stand on that register in the morning, and had to remember not 
to touch the window hardware or I'd get a mild shock.)

I didn't have any equipment to align it, but I knew the father of a 
classmate down the street was a ham, and he was nice enough to help me. 
I remember him telling me that I did a great job of building it. It was 
pretty impressive with its power transformer and copper-plated chassis. 
I loved that radio, and scanned the shortwave bands every night before 
going to sleep.

When I got my novice license, I built the tri-tet oscillator transmitter 
from the handbook - you know, the one with doorbell wire wound around 
lollypop sticks on a wooden 'chassis'. Operating mostly on 75/80 meters, 
I didn't have any problem with drift.

I don't remember where that receiver went, but I bought another about 
ten years ago on ebay, reduced it to parts, and rebuilt it as though it 
were 1959 again. It was great fun, but I was pretty disappointed by the 
performance - not what I remembered. Band 4 was pretty much unusable. I 
didn't keep it very long, but did enjoy the nostalgia.

Terry K8TP
One of the (former) hams at Heath

P.S. I found an S-38 at a local swap meet last year, and brought it 
home. It was in terrible shape, and I didn't even plug it in, but tore 
it down and rebuilt it on new, homemade chassis. Considering how many of 
this basic circuit Hallicrafters sold, I figured it would be worth the 
effort, but it wasn't. Even after replacing the regenerative BFO with a 
real one, and putting in new tubes and realigning, it's terrible - much 
worse than the AR-3, and I won't even waste time build a new cabinet for it.