Saturday, July 11, 2020
Last night I unboxed a Heathkit HW-101 I purchased months ago. It’s a pretty clean rig and doesn’t look like it has been chopped up or abused. The rig needs a power supply, and I remembered that I bought one at a hamfest years ago, and it was in the back of my Durango … or so I remembered.
Lo and behold, the power supply was there, and I brought it in. I also found a Heathkit SB-102 that I must have bought a year or more back …. its in great shape, but I have it upstairs to check out. I don’t remember if the rig was supposed to be functioning or not, but I guess that’s part of the joy of discovery, hi hi.
The missing link I had to locate was a cable to connect the power supply to the rig. I wasn’t sure I had one, though I remember spotting one while I was cleaning up the shack. I searched tonight and found it, so tomorrow I can give the gear a check out. Of course, last night I went ahead an ordered a complete Heathkit power cable on eBay, as well as two complete sets of “O” rings (i.e. belts).
The HW-101 has two complete belts, but its missing the loading belt. I’ve read that most rigs used a dial cord arrangement for this control because the belt can slip unless its really tight, and then the tension from the belt can cause excessive wear in the bearings on that shaft.
On my original SB-102 I had to replace the o-rings. I took pieces of the originals and went to a car parts store and matched them up with similar o-rings. I took the easy way out to put them on — I cut the o-rings and then used Crazy Glue to glue them back together.
I don’t know that the SB-102 needs o-rings, but I’m figuring that its better to be safe than sorry.
In the meantime, I’m going to look for dial cord and the appropriate springs. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to know how to string one correctly.
NO JOY FROM STUDIO C. The last couple of nights, I’ve tried to check in to the Georgia CW net from Studio C. The first night the band conditions where so bad I really couldn’t hear enough of the NCS to check in. The next night I tried, the NCS never heard me call him. Tonight I was going to check in from the main shack, but we had a line of thunderstorms bearing down on us, and the static crashes were 20 over S9. Maybe tomorrow.
SHIPPING CHARGES HIGHER. I sent out the Kenwood TS-690S/AT I sold recently, and the cost of shipping the rig kind of surprised me. Now when I ship a transceiver, I almost always double box it, and I never have damage reported during transit. Of course, double boxing makes the package cost more due to the larger size and heavier weight. The cost to ship the thing was over $50 with sufficient insurance to cover the purchase price. I guess $50 is going to be my average shipping price for an HF transceiver.
WHAT’S NEXT. I need to move my FT-950 and my FT-847 upstairs for a full check out and photos in order to get them both eventually listed on eBay. I still have my FTDX-3000, and I need to figure out if it stays or goes. It doesn’t have much use on it, and the rig is an excellent performer. But right now ‘I have a desire for a new Icom, especially after using my IC-756PROII.
73 es CUL …. de KY4Z … SK … SK ….. (dit dit) ….