The first premium receiver that I ever got my hands on was the Watkins Johnson HF-1000. I was very fortunate because I had friend who bought one of these. He let me borrow it for a week so that I could write a driver for ERGO. Unfortunately, I had to give it back.

The HF-1000 was a reduced-price consumer version of the 8711 series. It was still very expensive. It was a combination analog receiving chain with digital signal processing at the IF, like many rigs of that era. Users loved the front panel. Engineers raved about the specifications.

But I am going to say something that will get the premium receiver guys mad at me. The HF-1000 had lots of bells and whistles, and a deep heritage. Comparing it to the AR7030 or IC756 Pro II in my shack at the time, though, I did not see a lot of difference. Sherwood Engineering’s receiver test data bears this out. And the price of the Watkins Johnson HF-1000 was around $4,000 – more than triple that of the AR7030. It sure looked good, though, and was fun to use.

Here is a comprehensive video showing the HF-1000 in action. This gear still shows up on the used market, long after its 1993-1998 production run.

Watkins Johnson HF-1000 Receiver Control

The command protocols, while many, were easy to use because of their simple ASCII text format. What’s more, the manual was well written and surprisingly accurate. Poorly written computer control protocol documentation was a constant challenge. Not so with this one.

Writing the ERGO driver for this radio was relatively simple. It was also  easy to write drivers for its cousins – the 8711 and 8712. These used similar commands and responses.

One of the great things about developing ERGO was the feedback from users. Users were willing to be beta testers for new drivers. Users provided many great ideas for new features.