Wednesday night
I had free time this afternoon so I decided to try out the latest SB-102 transceiver I recently picked up on eBay. After questioning the seller, I was informed that the radio operated just fine, it just suffered from dirty controls. The seller was still making contacts — or so he said.
Of course, I’m skeptical of all claims, but in this instance, my fears were unfounded. The radio warmed up and after some preliminary checks, I tuned it up on 80 and 40 meters. 100 watts solid transmit power on both, receiver quickly settled down after a period of minimal drift.
I checked in on my CW traffic net this evening with the rig, and it performed admirably; I zeroed the dial and it tracked as well as you could expect a 50-year-old rig to track.
The rig had no surprises — other than several controls were indeed very dirty and intermittent, which the seller had warned me about. Physically, the radio arrived in excellent shape; no dents or chips on the cabinet. The front panel is also in great shape. The only deficit I found was the radio lacks a CW filter. I will either take one from one of my other SB-102s, or buy one elsewhere. But I absolutely HAVE to have a CW filter. I just sold an SB-102 last week, and had I thought about it, I should have scavenged the CW filter out of that one. I believe I still have an SB-102 in a basket under a table in the shack … I may have to donate a filter to my new SB-102.
Oh, the other deficit in this latest SB-102 … the paddle switch is broken off. You can still engage the filter switch without the paddle. I’ll keep my eyes out for a replacement.
Of all of the Heathkit HF rigs I’ve tested, this one seems to be the best. The other one I’ve been using is a close second; I think it just needs a little needed maintenance and it too would be a fine old radio.
I can’t tell you how much I really ENJOY operating these old rigs! I love listening to them, and I love working CW with them.
LIBRARY RIG. Right now the only rigs I have here in the library is a Yaesu FT-817 and a Chinese RS-918 QRP transceiver. I haven’t decided what rig — if any — I’m going to bring down here. I still have my Yaesu FTDX3000 I can put in place here, or when I get my Yaesu FTDX101MP set up,, I could move my Yaesu FT2000 in here. Right now, I’m not sure what I’m going to do — other than listen to 75 meters on one of the WebSDR receivers.
I need to move a more comfortable chair upstairs to Studio C. I’ have a cheap-ass folding chair up their, and it just kills my ass. Its always something, hi hi!
73 es CUL …. de KY4Z … SK … SK (dit dit) ….