SB-401 won't tune up / Bleeding Green

[Jack Cantrell]

Stu,

As per your instruction, I turned the pair around and
re-cabled them by the book.  The cables, aside from
the LMO,are RG-58/U.  Does this make a difference?

I assume it does not since they were delivered from
the Ft Wayne hamfest (380 miles away) as a working
pair.  Can you imagine making a grocery list for your
mom and sending her out to buy Heathkits?  Sometimes
we don't know how lucky we truly are!

Instruction A: I did this.  OK
Instruction B: I did this.  OK
Instruction C: No dice.  Although I get 50 mA at
Plate, and no adjustment to Level, Drive or Final
produces any deflection of the meter.  So, it's at
this point that the tuning process breaks down.  I
can't seem to do anything that moves the meter.

As to your question, I did a little shopping.
     Astatic D-104 mic        = $39
     2 pin amphenol connector = $6.75
     Heathkit HM-102 Watt/SWR = $26

The connector was from the reflector here.  The other
two were from E-Bay.

So, how do we get to step C?

I appreciate the facetious offer of the Kenwood.
However, it seems I bleed green.  I have sitting next
to my newly acquired twins, the old HW-16 that I built
in the Fall of '72.  I bought that at the Avon, CT
Heathkit store -- one of the many stomping grounds of
my wonderfully misspent youth.  It works, but I have
only two crystals: 3525 & 3595.

Next to that is an AT-1 that works so well it starts
sending as I'm still plugging the crystal in.  What
this has to do with the Grid/Plate switch that I
broke...  Well, there's just no telling, is there?

I Would trade that AT-1 for a working HG-10/B in a New
York minute.  Would that help my code speed?  When the
Cubs win the Series.

As for too many knobs to turn, that's part of the
attraction.  The fun seems to be proportional to knob
count.  Before we confirm the obvious Freudian
diagnosis, it would probably help at this point to
mention that I work with computers all day.

During the day, I am configuring a large accounting
system which is one collossal exercise in
trouble-shooting.  In the early evenings, I attend a
class in setting up networks and configuring routers,
which I hope will create a job that doesn't involve a
new employer in a new city every year.

As you can see, I have access to an awful lot
reliable, digital communications, and this email
speaks for itself to that issue.  Would I like a
Ten-Tec Jupiter or a TS-2000?  Of course.  But they'd
look awfully small on that big boat anchor table.  And
they'd be so easy to use (for a computer guy) that I
fear I'd begin to perceive them as a "phone that
sounds bad," and not as a "radio."

Contesting and DXCC are still pretty far down the road
for me.  For now, it's just nice to have something
truly analog at the end of a long, digital day.

Thanks for helping me with this,

Jack AB0OX.

PS: I think know why people spend a lot for unbuilt
kits.  Some may be investors, but I don't think all of
them are.  The next time you see Citizen Kane,
substitute "Heathkit" for "Rosebud."



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