Heathkit MR-1010 display

I was going to try and fix/replace the frequency display in the Heathkit MR-1010 direction finder radio (see https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-heathkit-mr-1010.html  )

inside view of the Heathkit MR-1010

so I tried hooking up an LCD counter I purchased on Ebay.  I set the LCD counter to a 0.453 MHz IF with a subtract (high side Local Oscillator (LO) injection).  The external counter was easy to hook into the MR-1010 via the yellow wire coming from the LO to the counter input.

The yellow wire connects the Local Oscillator to the display

But then I did try the internal counter and it started to work again.  There is still something wrong though, in spite of the Faraday cage in front of the display (you can see the wires in the picture) and the feed through caps and all the other shielding precautions that Heathkit took there is a lot of interference when the internal counter is ON.

WDBC in Escanaba MI tuned for maximum meter reading

 

Also, the radio uses about 30 mA at 9V but when the counter is turned on this zooms up to 320 mA or so.  The display can be toggled on and off to save the battery.

The problem for a lazy repairman like me is having to dig into the insides of the radio to get at the counter.  Maybe an external replacement is in order.

As said before there isn't much to listen to, the 680 kHz station is OK, mostly easy listening.  There is a retro rock station at 1590 kHz (WGBW in Denmark WI not too far from Green Bay) which isn't too bad.  But in-between just a lot of static and blather.  And it's a lot of knob cranking to go between those two decent stations.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm