Fw: RE: [Heathkit] Good idea...really!

[Garey Barrell]

Agreed!

I have a DX-100B that looks like brand new.  I bought it at a hamfest 
some years ago, "working perfectly" of course, and brought it home.   
Turning it on brought normal looking and sounding operation, but very 
little output and no operation on 80M.

Investigation showed that the builder had managed to break the ceramic 
switch wafer INSIDE the VFO.  He had attempted to glue the two pieces 
together with what appeared to be Duco cement, which probably let go the 
first time the switch was turned.  After getting to it and a little 
cogitation it appeared that a suitable sub for the custom made switch 
could be produced from a standard switch wafer with a little creative 
"cross-wiring".

So now I had reduced output on ALL bands!  Examination of the final area 
revealed that one of the 6146 tubes (cold) was not fully seated in the 
socket, and reasonable force didn't do it!  One of the tube socket 
terminals was full of solder, preventing it from seating properly.  A 
little work with a vacuum solder sucker resolved that problem and gave 
me full output on all bands.

The general wiring job was outstanding, and everything else was fine.  I 
can't help but think of the poor soul who probably saved what was a LOT 
of money in those days, spent a week or more building it, (with a little 
extra time to glue the broken switch wafer,) and got little or no output 
power.  Then the first time he turned the bandswitch it re-broke that  
_inaccessable_  VFO switch!   I assume he put it in a closet and tried 
to forget it, no doubt swearing off Ham Radio for the duration!  :-)

73, Garey - K4OAH
Atlanta

Drake 2-B, 4-B & C-Line Service Data
<http://www.k4oah.com>



windy10605 at juno.com wrote:
> I haven't "reverse kitted" a Heathkit but I have taken several SB/HW-10x
> units apart. Sometimes you find one which is extremely well built, no
> excess solder and flux, wires routed well, etc. Those I repair and use.
> However, it is amazing how many times I've found unsoldered connections,
> arcing points, actual burn marks, wires with insulation burned off
> (soldering iron), broken switch decks, loose board ground screws, wrong
> tubes, shorts, etc as part of the disassembly process. When I have
> checked boards closely, I've found missing components and wrong value
> components. You always have to keep that in mind when repairing a kit
> .....you never know for sure if it EVER worked correctly. When built
> right, and with good components, Heathkits are great. 
>
> Used to think that seeing a late Heathkit service sticker was a GOOD sign
> ...."at least it was sent to the factory where it received all the latest
> mandatory upgrades and was working correctly at one time" was my
> thinking. Not so, I came across a HW-101 with FOUR factory repair
> stickers ......what a dog.  So now I've changed my thinking to
> ..........seeing a late Heathkit service sticker is a good sign if there
> is only ONE. 
>
> Good to hear about rebuilding the Apache ....what a project, what a rig.
>
> 73 Kees K5BCQ
>
>  
> --------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Joe Filice" <jpf at photon.com>
> To: <Heathkit at mailman.qth.net>
> Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:49:53 -0700
> Subject: RE: [Heathkit] Good idea...really!
> Message-ID: <53D50E71E9894C49BC3B9F9650C049DA011692D7 at tyros.photon.com>
>  
> I've "reverse kitted" several Heathkits too.  I possibly took it to a
> ridiculous extreme when I did it to an Apache transmitter.  I worked on
> disassembling it a little at a time over about a two year period.  I
> took it completely apart, down to the last solder lug.  Then built it
> back up with new components where it made sense.  It works great, though
> I've only run it into a dummy load.  I hope to have it on the air in a
> month or two.  
>  
> The thing is, every time I do this to a Heathkit, they work perfectly
> when I'm finished.  And it's a lot of fun.  Sometimes you get a nice
> looking unit, which was well built by the original kit builder, but has
> problems.  It can be quite difficult (not to mention frustrating) to
> chase all the problems down.  "Reverse kitting" takes all the thinking
> out of debugging.  It's the brain-dead way to fix your Heathkits!
>  
> I'm currently working on a Mohican.  Actually two Mohicans which have
> enough parts between them to make one good receiver.
>  
> Joe, KQ6GL
>  
>  
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