[Heathkit] Heathkit SB Essay.

[James M. Walker]

Well I guess I will throw my two cents in here.

This Essay seems like a serious case of 'Monday Quarterback' Syndrome.

The object behind the SB series wasn't to make "THE BEST", but the most
usable whether built from a kit or factory assembled. I have to say I have 
"SB"
gear here, and use it, and enjoy the capabilities they provide.

I found that buying used kit type equipment came with its own unique 
hazards,
not the least of which, was indeed bad solder joints, or no solder on the 
joint
ever, making the unit intermittent at best. As for alignment problems I have 
not
experienced any so far, with the units I have. If you find that the parts 
are not
to your standards, the solution is simple, 'make new ones' , mass production
is a subject unto itself, and I won't go into that here, but it was intended 
to get
amateurs that wanted a reasonably stable radio set into that capability. In 
all the
alignments I have done for these units, I don't remember ever reading that 
to
align it you will need a frequency counter, a signal generator with an 
accuracy
of 1 part in 10 to the 9th to accomplish said alignment.

Nope they were made for fairly savvy folks that knew which end of the iron 
is
hot, were not color blind, and could follow instructions to accomplish a 
task.
They had abilities, that were theirs by right of earning/learning them. Sure 
anyone
can come along after the fact, and say this or that was a bad idea, but lets 
see
you put together a kit of that genre, make it functional, and low cost, 
require a
minimum of tools to assemble and align, for the same cost the folks at Heath 
did
and then produce so many of them, and sell them!

I like my Heath gear from the DX-100 to the the SB-series, Salude Heathkit
Engineers, on a job well done!
Jim
WB2FCN
http://eshop1.chem.buffalo.edu

"If you can't do it, don't complain about someone that can!"


Subject: Re: [Heathkit] Heathkit SB Essay.


> My goodness!  With that report I am really surprised they sold more then 
> ten of anything!  Geez, I am going to start selling off my Heathkit 
> collection (including an unbuilt SB220!)   Van, K7VS Medford,
>
>>I wrote this the other day, here is a fresh edit:
>>
>> On Heathkit SB's.
>>
>> The problem with Heathkit's SB transceivers isn't the soldering.
>> That's an old-ham's saw.  It's not quite up there with the "Acid Core"
>> urban legend, but it's close.
>>
>> While I have encountered poor solder jobs, I have only seen one
>> problem that was clearly solder based and that was in a factory,
>> machine-made part.
>>
>> The problem with Heath are the mechanicals.  The design is clever;
>> the parts are mediocre; the mechanical build quality is generally
>> horrible.
>>
>> A case in point is the LMO pinch drive and the tension on the rings.
>> I've spent hours cleaning, polishing, and adjusting the drive and when 
>> it's right, it's terrific.  It's light, smooth, precise, no backlash. I 
>> have a Heath SB tuning knob with lead weights in it.  It's a perfect 
>> match for the LMO drive.
>>
>> I had an SB pinchdrive shaft that was dragging. 35 years of corrosion 
>> will do that to metal. I hand polished the shaft with 1200 grit, oiled 
>> it, got it turning right in the brass sleeve.
>>
>> I carefully cleaned the LMO dial ring and tensioned the drive disks. Then 
>> it takes several times of trial and error to get the disks on the right 
>> part of the ring.
>>
>> Even when you have the pinch drive adjusted right, the 100 kHz
>> indicator is off.  That's a 30 minute trial and error adjustment where
>> 1/64 inch position shift of a piece of metal under a machine screw is
>> amplified by an articulated arm.    After the fine tuning, you're
>> fighting the play in stamped parts.
>>
>> Then there's the fiduciary on the LMO.  What's with that?
>>
>> Every fiduciary knob is corroded.  I polished one until it shines.
>> It's still just a knob on a 1/8 inch shaft in a hole drilled in plastic, 
>> no fore-aft stop, driving a piece of wobbly plastic with friction.  The 
>> plastic hairline may have chips on the edge.  Nothing you can do about 
>> that.
>>
>> Another problem with Heath are the thin skirts on the knobs.  The
>> skirts could be thicker and more precise.  When I put the knobs back
>> on a Heath, I use a feeler gauge to space the skirt from the front
>> panel. 1/8th inch is about right. That's after I find the low spot on the 
>> skirt.
>>
>> This is after I clean the dirt out of the knob flutes with a wood 
>> toothpick and polish the plastic with a silk cloth.
>>
>> The bezel on the SB's should be more like Collins.  That was a bad
>> place for Heath to cut corners. A thick solid bezel would give the
>> fiduciary's drive shaft more bearing surface.
>>
>> How did Heath get the bezels on the DX-60 and the HW-16 so right and
>> the SB so wrong?
>>
>> The phenolic circuit boards are mediocre.  The design is fine.  Thick
>> FR4 glass epoxy would have made the Heath's much better.
>>
>> On sheer performance, the Heath's are up there. The 6HS6 (or FETs in the 
>> SB-303)) give .25 microvolt sensitivity. Hot receivers, 6 pole
>> crystal filters, rock-stable, 1 kHz readout, etc. Transceiver slaved to a 
>> full Receiver. Drake and Halli couldn't do that well until they went 
>> digital.
>>
>> de ah6gi/4