Heathkit IT-3120 Transistor Tester

 It's not often that I find a piece of Heathkit gear in such pristine condition. I picked up this transistor tester from a friend, and it was CLEAN! I replaced the batteries, cleaned and lubricated the switches and controls, checked calibration, and it was ready to go to work. Here's a few pics...

Jerrold Attenuator...

 Wow, this attenuator is back on the walk of shame. I've beat this thing relentlessly for years, but occasionally I'll set my workbench switch to the wrong position and light it up :-) . We'll, I did it again, a Heathkit SB-200 amp smacked right into the 1st 20dB pad and let the magic smoke out. She's repaired and back on the front lines. Here's a few pics....

Heathkit SB-220 Repairs

 This Heathkit amp had a few problems... it was running very hot at idle, it stopped passing RF on TX, and had a soft key that was getting rf into it and causing erratic operation. Here's what I found...

Screwdriver tip pointing at unsoldered bypass cap in soft key, that's where RF was sneaking in :-)

A resistor from the negative dc bias circuit was incorrectly wired, so the tubes were "idling" at about 150-200 ma...

Coax center conductor had broken loose from the t/r relay...

Yaesu FT-650B Restoration

 This is the 6 meter (50mHz) transverter that matches the Yaesu FT-101/B/E/EE/F etc lineage. I got this to match up with my FT-101E station. It had not been on the air in many, many years, but turned out to be a fairly easy resto. Here's a few pics...

I popped the covers, pulled the original plastic protective covering from the faceplate, and looked it over.

There were only a small handful of electrolytic caps to change. All resistors were found in spec.

I removed the outer trim ring to facilitate complete removal of the plastic, and allow for better cleaning. 

I removed the tube and relays to clean the pins of these items and treat the sockets with cleaner.

The original plastic covering had yellowed and was very dirty. I also cleaned and lubricated the band switch, the attenuator pot, and the metering switch. 

Aside from being dusty, the final tube was in good condition.

I removed, soaked, and cleaned the knobs. I use a diluted solution of Dawn dish cleaner and warm water with a soft toothbrush.

The final result was a great transverter and a perfect match for my station!

Icom IC-211 VFO Repairs...

 Well, the IC-211 is back on my work bench. This time, the VFO fail and is stuck on the "power up" frequency. It has become increasingly sensitive to dust on the LED sources and optical receivers in the last year or two, perhaps the output of the LED sources is diminished a bit. I discovered alignment to be at fault as well. Check the videos...

It' back up and running fine. I operate it at about 1 watt out, into an old Vocom brick, for about 20watts to the feedline. With the feedline loss and antenna gain, my erp is around 395 watts. The pic below shows signals received today, so it's rx sensitivity is pretty good. Below that, you'll see my old Vocom amp, and lastly, a recent log snapshot. I just works my best 2m ft8 distance from NC, a bit over 1300 miles on a recent e-skip opening. Despite this gear being almost 50 years old,  it's still making great contacts.