Heathkit All Tube Amatuer Radio Station 1960's

[onanparts]

I picked up this 40+year old Heathkit SB-220 Amp several years ago in very good condition. It fired right up and performed to specs. The old filter caps were in good shape but they were OLD! Swapped them out for some computer grade caps along with an updated rectifier/metering board. The pair of vintage Eimac 3-500Z tubes glowing in the dark are a sight to see.

This amp was just the beginning of my goal to put together a classic all tube late 60's early 70's amateur radio station. It was soon followed by a SB-101 HF transceiver, a SB-110 6 meter rig, SB-610 monitor scope, SB-620 "Scanalyzer" IF Spectrum analyzer, SB-650 Frequency display with "working" Nixie tubes. and an HDP-21A HI-Z Mic, AKA an Electro Voice 638. Pics of the rest of the station to follow. The entire station pieces were all assembled between 1967-1969 except the SB-650 Freq display and the amp both from 1971 or 1972.

[onanparts]

A look inside at the old caps.

[onanparts]

New caps ready to install.

[onanparts]

Old and new rectifier/meter board.

[onanparts]

New caps installed.

[onanparts]

Rectifier/meter board installed.

[onanparts]

Overview.

[onanparts]

3-500Z's glowing in the dark. 

[onanparts]

In keeping with tradition the new boards were in "kit" form and assembled by me. They were called "Heathkits" for a reason.  No magic smoke escaped after the minor upgrades and I'm almost certain no cartoon characters were harmed in the process.

[Halfcrazy]

Very Nice. I keep saying I want to acquire an old Radio set. I need to keep my eyes open. Where did you find the upgrade kit boars etc for this?

KB1UAS

[niel]

wow, all of that seemed like yesterday. i knew some people that had much of this stuff, but i was into 11 meters at the time, which was far easier and cheaper to do as a young man. i have no doubt of the quality of these items, but i never understood why somebody paid big money to build it when they could buy assembled equipment from other manufacturers for about the same or a bit more. i also had run across a collins kwm2 in good shape in the late 80s and sold it after less than a year. i was more interested in going vhf/uhf and already had an hf rig with my then kenwood ts-430s. i'm currently bumming over my setbacks to staying active on the air, the latest of which is bad filters in my ts-2000x. from what i understand the problem is not limited to my radio or even kenwood as there has been an ongoing problem due to the filter manufacturer. one consolation of that heathkit stuff is that the radio problems being encountered today were nearly unheard of back then.

[onanparts]

Very Nice. I keep saying I want to acquire an old Radio set. I need to keep my eyes open. Where did you find the upgrade kit boars etc for this?

KB1UAS

http://www.harbachelectronics.com/main/page_home.html

Harbach has lots of goodies for older Heathkit, Collins, Drake etc.

I installed one of their "soft key" kits in the SB-220 amp so it can interface with my modern rigs safely. The amps keying relay is 120VDC and not friendly when using my Kenwood TS-440, circa 1983, hey that's "modern"! or Icom 706 Mark II G to drive it. The soft key is a low voltage amplifier, 0.7VDC at 1.5mA that protects the keying circuit in the newer rigs.

Obviously I like the old school tube gear but appreciate and use the new school gear too. The Icom 706 is a case in point. All mode HF, VHF & UHF in a small mobile package. The TS-440 is the daily driver and connected to my PC audio card for digital using HRD, Ham Radio Deluxe.

That being said there is nothing like the soft glow of tubes in the shack at night when working a distant station. 

[onanparts]

i never understood why somebody paid big money to build it when they could buy assembled equipment from other manufacturers for about the same or a bit more.

From http://www.heathkit-museum.com/hvmhistory.shtml

"But it wasn't until shortly after World War II, that the character of the Heath Company changed. It was then that an ambitious engineer named Howard Anthony, who had purchased the Heath Company in 1935, took a calculated gamble. The ingenious Mr. Anthony bought a large stock of surplus wartime electronic parts, designed and "mail order marketed" an oscilloscope for $39.50.

Mr. Anthony based the success of his idea on the premise that anyone, regardless of technical knowledge or skills, could assemble a kit himself, and save up to 50% over comparable factory-built models. All that would be required were a few simple hand tools and some spare time.

Orders poured in for the oscilloscope kit and the foundation for the Heath Company as it exists today was established. Mr. Anthony expanded his test instrument line and soon added amateur radio and hi-fi component kits".

Above info from an early Heathkit catalog.

All Heathkits were hand assembled by the owners. The pure satisfaction of "doing it yourself" and at an affordable cost was hard to beat during the Heatkit era. The SB series of Heath Ham radio gear is highly sought after today. The SB-220 Amp I have typically goes for between $600-$1000 on ebay these days. Found mine locally for a good price.

The quality of that particular series was excellent. The only shortcuts to keep the prices down were usually cosmetic, plastic knobs etc. The chassis and electrical/electronic components were very good as proof being that many are still in use today and only require minimal updates such as caps and maybe resistors that are no longer within tolerance to bring them up to alignment specs.

Since the kits came with "assembly" manuals, not repair manuals written as "guides" for experienced bench techs, the old heath's are easy to work on and repair. No microscopes or BIG magnifying glass required to SEE the components! 

[Vic]

The Harbach mods/upgrades are very good.  Harbach bought the name and designs from Peter Dahl (transformers).

The  only real drawback of the SB-220,  and its stable-mates, is the lack of coverage of 160 Meters.  The design is very solid,  have one here,  and it still works fine,  without any internal mods.

That cap board looks very well made .. may just have to snag one soon.

Thanks for posting.  Half of my gear is tube-type.  Am still a bit of an AMer.  Do love the glow and aroma of old tube gear.  Vic  K6IC

[boB]

Beautiful pix !!

A friend and I have a couple of tables at the local hamfest coming up in Puyallup, WA in a couple of weeks.

Getting in early is nice.  I collect tubes of weird shapes when possible.  I have a couple of S-38 receivers
which was my first SW radio when I was in 4th grade or so.  I wish I hadn't gotten rid of my old radios
after Jr. high school.  I would like to get some of those old tube radios again including the military
receivers I used to have.  BC348  etc.  One thing I'll never be able to get though is the programming
that was on the air back then.  I was   WN7IWN  (Idiots With Nuts) back around  1966 and 1967 and
did a lot of CW.  What a great time !

boB