[Heathkit] SB220 ProblemsHi guys,

[Marty Bluhm]

I thought it would be easier to answer all the emails this way.

First, Thank you to all. I did not expect the responses but certainly
appreciate them.
I also thought a detailed explanation of what is going on was in order.

My station consists of a IC7300 & the SB220. Antennas are 40m & 20m dipoles
in inverted V configuration. Apex 32 ft.
Also I have a King Qso end feed configuration as an inv L (118 ft)
.i also had an 87ft inv L  for WARC bands which is part of the story.

The amp was purchased last Oct. upon arrival, thanks to our good friends at
UPS, one of the parasitic suppressors was broken. Thanks to.this group, I
was able to obtain better ones from France.
After installation, the moment of truth had arrived.
Fired it up on 20m inv V.  30 watts input, good output (don't have the nrs
handy). Gradually worked the drive up to 70 watts for 900 watts output on a
Swan wm2000 wattmeter.
Great,  let's try 40 inv V.
Barefoot, the antenna worked great.  Flat swr, no reflected power.
The moment I turned the amp on and keyed it, the swr on the 7300 spiked and
there was a popping sound.
Went back to other bands/antennas, no problem. Back to 40 inches V,  worse.
The popping took out the 40m input coil.

Time for somebody who knows what they are doing. A call to the AMP Dr in OH
was made  and the amp was hand carried to Oh. No more UPS.
Upon examination, the decision was made that this would probably be my last
amp, so ALL the Harbach kits were purchased and installed. This included
new caps, did board, soft start & keying.
The AMP did a super job going through it checking for iffy/cold solder
joints, replaced a bad meter and a super cleaning job.
Brought home in Dec, due to holidays, nothing was done until this past week.

Upon hooking it up, guess what, nothing changed, in fact worse.
Not only was 40 the same but 20m killed the program (Dxlab) running on the
computer.
So was checking other bands, the inv L previously tuned on 15 with no
problems (used in dxing).
Only this time, when it tuned to 900watts with 70 watts drive, the amp
meter spiked to the right and fell back to the left. No workee anymore.
But I did have a nice burnt aroma to remember it by.
Checking the outside coax and balun which now are both black powder. This
was one of the good baluns and good DXE coax. Burnt to a crisp.

As you can imagine, I was not in the best of moods. The amp has been
removed from the station and sitting on the dining room table.

So for now, I'm running 100 watts which is not a big deal.
Always wanted a 220 , got one, BOY do I have one!

Again, thanks for all the responses.
73 & Happy New Year to y'all!

Marty
W8AKS