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| Reviews Summary for Heathkit HR-1680 |
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Reviews: 12
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Average rating: 4.4/5
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MSRP: $349.95
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Description: Heathkit receiver...companion to the HT-1680
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Product is not in production.
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More info: http://
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WB8ICU
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 1, 2012 16:03
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great cw rig
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I built mine when heathkit first came out with it, hoping to get the promised transmitter coming soon. Fially gave up, sold it. Then Heath came out with the hx1681! A few years later, bought one at a swap. Looked familiar, opened it up, had my mark on the inside! Got a tx the hr1681, and had them both ever since. I have had this rig for over 25 years, and still use it more than 2 more modern rigs. Its obviously made for cw rather than having cw tacked onto an ssb rig.
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W8QZ
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 4, 2011 10:35
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Pretty good ham receiver
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I had a friend in high school who was curious about radio. I talked him into buying the HR1680 kit. He built it, and did a good job, generally. But it still wouldn't work. I took it to do the troubleshooting. Found a blown mosfet in the front end. With that replaced, it now was unstable - tuning the preselector made it go in and out of oscillation. (Maybe my replacement mosfet was higher gain than the original?). Anyway, the kit called out a specific length of wire to run to the preselector variable cap. This was too short, by several inches - it ran right over the front end circuits. I put in a longer piece, routed it carefully away from the front end, and, voila! A great performing receiver, once aligned. (I wonder if my friend still has it?)
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W0XEU
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 4, 2011 06:51
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Great receiver (at the time) if you could not afford the SB-303
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I built one of these when new, then the companion HX-1681 (matching CW transmitter). Nice QSK. The Receiver was easy to build, repair, modify. I changed/moved the voltage regulator to the back panel (heat and obscure part), changed the audio amp to an LM-380, changed the dial lamps to (and added a switch) LED's, changed the RF jack to a BNC, added a (switchable) digital frequency counter behind the red filter, moved the AC switch to the rear panel to avoid AC along the wiring harness, added an external fuse; experimented with SBL-1 mixers in-place of the dual-gate MOSFETS (a good mod), added another filer position using the existing op-amp (moved the calibrator switch to the rear panel). This is a great platform for experimentation! What's next? If I get-around-to-it, an internal DSP (audio) filter, changes in stage gain to improve big-signal handling / blocking, improved AGC. Still have it, but want another ('stock'), for sentimental reasons.
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K9MHZ
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 29, 2010 20:31
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Nice, Simple, Nothing Exciting
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Nice radio. I would definitely NOT get this radio with the intent of using it on AM, though. Sure, anyone can tune an AM sideband with a SSB receiver...what's novel or new about that idea? But...it's a SSB/CW receiver. Tuning an AM sideband will disappoint. If you're an AM enthusiast, get an AM receiver. What a concept.
The radio is solid, simple, and does an adequate overall job. Probably one of the best backup receivers you'll find. If you have a cottage, workshop, etc...it's perfect. I use mine in my plane's hangar, and it's great fun. It was definitely a nice recovery for Heath after the HR-10B fiasco.
If you can get a nice one for less than say, $100, you'll be very satisfied.
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N0XE
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 28, 2009 19:56
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AM no Problem
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had many SSB,CW only radios over the years that I listen to AM on just fine. This radio should be no different and is a pretty decent receiver even today , careful tuning and zero beating and you can copy AM just fine. NO it will not have great wide bandwidth quality like you find on some nice old Boat Anchor but perfectly usable. Zero in on WWV with any of SSB only rigs and test it, or any of the AM power house broadcast stations on 40 meters some night, works fine. In fact some hams have checked in to SSB nets while TX on AM making sure they were perfectly zero beat and many times the SSB station net control never even new they were actually on AM. Yes if they moved a tad off freq you would notice the carrier, but my point it works and it has been done many times and been a part of ham radio for ages, The HR-1680 can be used with your DX 60, or any other AM TX and will get the job done, you just may not like the way AM sounds on SSB, but for CW and AM communications it will be good enough, 73 Jim N0XE
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WB1PIX
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 28, 2009 19:03
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Built like a tank
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought the HR-1680 used for $30 from an estate. The original owner had passed away. He noted on the manual that the unit was built in April 1978. Strange thing is - even though he passed away he left the unit perfectly calibrated and the tuning dial calibrated dead-nuts on - as if he knew he had to get it ready for the next person (me??).
I bought an adapter to get my coax (attached to a wire dipole) to plug into the phono plug on the back of the receiver. I also connected some computer speakers because my first test with headphones - I found some of the crackles, pops and tones were hard to take through the headphones. The speakers mellowed it out.
Needless to say, this receiver has a better, cleaner receive than my Kenwood TS-570D. My theory is, if someone is willing to put the work into building a kit they'd better get a damn good radio out of it and this is truly a great receiver.
The tuning dial is as smooth as butter. A very slow, progressive tune. Signals are tuned in very well with little background noise. If there's an adjacent signal, the preselector helps get rid of it.
The "function" allows to pick between wide, narrow and calibrated. The narrow is probably good for CW. As I listen to SSB, I keep the function on "wide".
I put the RF gain on full, the AF gain at 50 percent and the PC speakers at 50 percent. Everything just feels perfectly calibrated (almost spookily so).
The red light up on the dial and S-meter is pretty cool. Great for late night listening. The case is very heavy (the unit weighs about 10 pounds) and it has that cool Heathkit paint job which is hard to beat.
All in all, this is a very good receiver. I plan to take it out on my screened-in porch and hook up an 80 meter dipole in the back yard and do some late night, almost in the dark listening.
During the day I listen to 20 meters while I'm working. I can really appreciate listening to some good operators who have a good voice tonality, good manners and good operating technique.
All told, if you can get this unit used as a "vintage" listening station, I would say go for it. I'm going to try to get the HR-1681 transmitter at some point.
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N6KYS
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 10, 2007 20:06
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Not bad for its age
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I built this rig once it was offered as the replacement for the HR-10B, and enjoyed it back then. Since then (the 1970's), I've owned several, and all have worked well. Not the most sensitive receivers ever built, and quite lacking in features even for its day, but it was a very good receiver for the intended user.....the Novice to General CW/SSB operator. One thing that was very strange was that Heath made its companion transmitter, the HX-1681, just a CW transmitter......thereby not even taking full advantage of the features (SSB) designed into the HR-1680 receiver. Also, the HR-1680 couldn't receive Am signals alone, which was disappointing, and since the HR-10B was such a poor receiver, the HR-1680 one would have been a good companion to the DX-60B transmitter if it could have received AM. Overall, not a bad receiver, if you can find one for a bargain. One thing though.....one of the solid state devices that had its own heat sink, and I can't remember which one it was (something in the audio amplification comes to mind), got very hot during operation, and would fail at times. Some modification ideas were placed out into the ham community, so try and dig up what that mod was, and do it.....it will save you some grief later.
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K6WHP
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 22, 2007 16:09
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Surprising for an "older" radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Never owned one of these but got to use one one afternoon and I was impressed. Mainly, because there's acres of space inside the radio and -- like the K2 -- if you build it (or have the assembly/operation manual) you can service it. The only drawback is that the original configuration has the old, hot dial lights near the VFO causing drift. The going advice is to replace them with LEDs and save the heartache.
..anyone out there got a 1680 they want to part with?
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M0WQR
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 16, 2007 09:01
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Good Old Work Horse
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Bought mine new at Benton Harbor in the 1970's. It has never failed. Has excellent sensitivity and has been used for cw mostly. And just keeps working.
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WA3SIMI
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 24, 2004 13:50
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great sensitivity
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought and built this about 25 years ago. I got back into the hobby and fired this thing up.
It has excellent sensitivity, and I prefer the audio on this relic to my brand new state of the art Yaesu transceiver!
After a few minutes of "warm-up" (solid state) it is very stable.
Only problem: the front end will oscillate if the antenna impedance is too high.
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