[Heathkit] SB-220 on 120 volts

[Gary Pewitt]

George,
I don't know what kind of house you live in but almost all houses in 
the U.S. have 240v available.  Do you have an electric stove, dryer, 
water heater, or furnace?  If so you have 240v power.  All breaker 
boxes I've ever seen have two rows of breakers.  If you looked behind 
them you would see three bus bars.  The two outer ones are at 120 
volt potential to the center one which is the neutral.  Going clear 
across from outer to outer gives 240v.  If you have a really old 60 
amp fuse box you may only have 120v.  If that's what you have you 
shouldn't try running an amp. The breakers for stoves and other high 
amp devices fit across to give higher voltage at lower amp loads.  If 
you have breakers for such and aren't using all of them just hook 
your amp to one of them with 10-4Romex.  That will give you two hots, 
neutral, and a ground.  I've done that temporarily to run an AC arc 
welder in a rented house.
  Do you have three prong outlets?  If so your house wiring may have 
been modernized.
73  Gary



At 04:36 PM 2/12/2008, kc7hkp at comcast.net wrote:
>I Guys
>I just got my heathkit SB-220 Going for the first time since owning 
>it for many years, Put in a set of used Emiac 3-500z tubes, We used 
>220 volt at a friend place, I do not have 220v Yet, only 120, I am 
>getting a bid to have 220 installed by the way.
>Would it be dumb to use 120volts if 220 volt installation is beyond 
>my expense allowance. ?
>
>thank very much
>George
>
>--
>KC7HKP
>George Yazzolino
>14801 NE 20th Circle
>Vancouver, Wa. USA ,98684
>Grid CN-85
>kc7hkp at arrl.net

end
Gary Pewitt  N9ZSV   n9zsv at magtel.com  479 675 4376
1500 French Prairie Rd. Booneville, Arkansas  72927
Sturgeon's Law "Ninety percent of everything is crap"  But it's that 
other 10% that makes life worth living.