SB-102 ETAL- Questions Used Heath Gear

[Mike Souhrada]

David Waldroupe wrote:
>
> Hi everybody, I'm new on the listserve. My name is David.  KE4MKO.  I
> just bought a SB-102 for $90. the receive is great. The transmit is
> not so good.

Guys I thought I'd jump into this message because there is a common
thread on many lists very much like it.
First, remember that most Heathkits were just that KITS. Although
 some were assembled by Heath. What follows is that the unit may have
 never worked at all! I've found that on more than one occasion. Unit
 looked good but because of an error in wiring it was NOT POSSIBLE
 to work properly ever.
Before you purchase a unit it is worth your time to look at the
workmanship
of the original builder. If you find a rats nest of excess leads,poor
wraps on terminals, or sloppy soldering you might be better off
passing it up; or price it accordingly, and be ready for a rebuilt job.

The troubleshooting statement in the kitbulders guide was correct
"90% of the problems are caused by poor soldering"-believe it.
A visual check on all the joints would be my first step. Last
year I worked on a HW 101 that had 3 joints Never Soldered.
Also the instructions given by Heath re "NS" -(no solder) on multiple
connections often resulted in the lowest device never being soldered
because the builder was afraid to really heat up the joint. Check the
first item on a stack of components like that. Heath should have said
something like "tack solder".

You must do your homework on these things. That is. start with the
manual. It's mandatory to do the Final Tests ,voltage testing,and
possibly the resistance tests provided.
Note-I've found many of the composition resisters creep way up in
value after all these years;especially on the 1Meg and over devices.
I pulled 13 resisters from a HW 101 Driver Board  I'm working on now
all because they were over 10% in tolerace-many were 30+%.

In addition if you expect to do much restoration find a tube tester.
Many of the older units have many hours on them  and a new tube
may be your solution. You may need to look around for a local to
help you there with the tester.

On the price side-frankly you get what you pay for. Know your seller
and remember that manals will add possibly $20 to your cost. W7FG.COM
has many and they are well done. A local may help you there also or
the list. Remember there are almost 100 pages to copy it's a lot of
picky work to do that.

I didn't mean to pontificate but I've been there and done that.There are
many
younger hams who didn't experience building a kit in days long gone.
It was fun,and a great learning experince.

Books on restoration: Read anything by J. Carr-"How to troubleshoot
and repair amateur radio equipment" a Tab book may still be around.
It was a big help to me getting started on restoration. There are
others.
This doesn't answer your question directly but may provide a direction.
Good luck.

Mike
Le Claire, Ia

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