[Heathkit] Re: Heathkit SB Essay.

[kiyoinc at attglobal.net]

Ken wrote:

> 
> 1. What leads you to say that problems with soldering in SB transceivers is an "old-ham's 
> saw"?
> 
> 2. Why do you state that acid core solder is an "urban legend"? Do you think that acid core 
> solder is fine to use on electronics?

The frame of reference is that I was active in the mid-1960's.  At that 
time, Drake and Halli were big sellers but frankly not very good 
compared to Heath and Collins, which I could not afford.

I was not familiar with the Drake C-line as that was after my time. 
Several people corrected my perception of Drake.  Unless someone donates 
a TR4CW-rit to me, I will not have that experience.

Between the 1960's and a few years ago, I was essentially off-the-air 
and out of Ham Radio. My original call was KH6FHN, then AH6BI, then 
AH6GI/4. The reason for the change is that each time, I renewed too late 
because "I forgot" and the Candy Company gave me a new call.

A few years ago, I got interested in Ham Radio.  It was a combination of 
my job going very bad and an illness.  You would think that with a M.S. 
Computer Science, decades of experience (to include C programming since 
1980), the guy who did more work than the blatherers and meeting 
attenders, and selflessly helped others, would be OK during the layoffs 
and firings.

If so, you were out of it, the last few years.  My personal view is that 
we are coming out of depression that is comparable to the 1930's, at 
least for technical professionals.

But back to Heath.

I bought a few "junker" Heaths off the Bay.  Since I didn't have full 
time employment and I had some free time, I started fixin' and cleanin' 
the Heaths.

My essay was intended to answer those who say that Heath was 2nd rate 
and you have to be very careful when buying.

You do have to be careful but I have never found a Heath SB with faulty 
soldering.  I've seen people make bad solder connections in the computer 
and audio arena. Great big globby, blobby solder joints with wires 
loosely poked into the blob.  Wires without any solder, just in the 
hole.  I have not seen that on Heath SB's.

Heath's little "how to solder" brochure might be the reason.  The other 
is that anyone who is a licensed Ham and attempts to build an SB, has 
made their mistakes and is doing the best job they can.

Similarly, I have never seen or heard of a Heath SB built with acid core 
solder.  The "how to solder" brochure and the fact that Heath supplied 
rosen core solder makes that almost impossible.

My essay was intended to put those two urban legends to bed.

What I have seen and repaired, are 40 year old radios with slipping, 
binding, or frozen main tuning shafts, FIDUCIAL (if my spell checker 
says it's right, it's right!) hairlines flopped over, misadjusted and 
simply horrible mechanicals. These may be worn out, never built right, 
or the basic parts weren't that good.

I have seen electrolytic caps go bad and resistors way out of tolerance. 
  One clue is the white stuff oozing out and the AC hum on the signals.

Over on eHam, one SB reviewer cautions that shoppers should check the 
main turning to verify that it works.

Huh?

It's a given that unless the SB came from another "builder/fixer", that 
the main tuning will need cleaning, polishing, re-tensioning, and 
careful adjusting.

The front panel of an SB is like a violin.  You have to clean, adjust, 
and tune it. When you get it right, it runs rings around anything of 
that vintage.

That's in the sense that we can all have a great time debating Heath 
SB-101 against Drake TR3, Hallicrafters SR-150, Swan-240,  SBE-33, 
National NCX-3, and the $1,200+ Collins KWM-2.  Throw in some potato 
chips and beer and the hollaring could get really good, almost worthy of 
75 meters LSB.

Problems exist with Heath, that's my basic point, but Heath is fixable.

I have seen (and repaired) an SB-303 that was built without the 
oscillator to mixer feed-through capacitor.  I bought it at Dayton in 
the late 1970's and got around to fixing it a few years ago.

What's amazing about Heath is that, I can put, oh, 80 hours on an $150 
SB-303, and turn it into an amazing performer.

$50/hour times 80 hours, $4,000 of labor?

Too bad no one will pay that.  My "reference standard" SB-303 is worth, 
what, $300?  This is the one that drifted 23 Hz over a week and tunes 
smooth, the LMO feels like oil on glass.  I spent hours polishing 40 
years of finger grime off the knobs.

It still needs a paint job and the bezel is still too thin.

What I like about Heath is that it was designed to be built and fixed 
and that the manuals show every part in detail.

de ah6gi/4