[Heath] Concerning the SB-200 and tubes...

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 20 May 2014 at 14:01, Guy Giacopuzzi wrote:

> 
> Well, I haven't scoured the internet for US or Russian tubes,

Well, I did, and found nothing worth a hoot.

> but I'd do that
> before I'd start modifying...for what it's worth, thetubecenter.com has Chinese
> ones for $44, and with a one year warranty...

Yes. So does Qmall. The trouble is, you have to send your defective ones 
back to China in order to receive new ones....AND you have to pay shipping 
at least one way, which is $25.00.

Not worth the effort.

And as I have said, and can prove, the darned things last all of 6 months, 
maybe, if you baby them.

BTW, the SB-200 I am modifying is one I bought off eBay as "junk" and "not 
working". It had been SEVERELY abused by...someone....obviously a CBer, 
because the plate coil form was visibly scorched (!!!) (I can send you photos), 
the plate tank coil had had the 10 meter tap moved, and the 10 meter grid coil 
was ruined in order to make both cover 11 meters.

Furthermore, the plate tuning capacitor had been arced so badly that half the 
plates were ruined, and several of the power supply capacitors were missing.

And the perforated cover that is supposed to cover the entire RF deck and 
power supply was missing.

The case, amazingly, was in fairly good condition.

Since it was so cheap, around $50, I figured that even with shipping (which 
was minimal, BTW, since the seller didn't pack it even remotely correctly), I 
could possibly resurrect it, IFF the power supply was still intact....for which I 
had doubts.

Fortunately, and thanks to Heathkit, the power transformer was OK. Also, I 
was extremely lucky enough to find an ORIGINAL NIB Johnson tuning 
capacitor on eBay which just HAPPENED to be identical to the one in the 
SB-200.

In addition, how many hundreds of SB-200s were made and sold? I am 
absolutely certain that "collector quality":SB-200s are easily found.

This one was not such.

I am not one bit sorry for modifying this one. I'm turning it from something only 
suitable to be thrown away into something useful and learning a lot in the 
process. I am also very thankful for Heathkit's robust and simple equipment.

I have and use a lot of it, and have done so since 1956 (DX-35).

Ken W7EKB