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Heathkit SB-104 Bargain

 

Heathkit SB-104 Bargain

Filed in SB-104 on Feb.13, 2019

On the last day of the Quartzfest event (near Quartzite, AZ), we walked through the swapfest there.  It had, I would guess, about 30 or 40 tables selling mostly used equipment.

I came across a table that caught my eye.  He had an old Heathkit SB-104 for sale.  When I asked the price, he said it was $100, including the matching speaker, power supply and microphone.

 
Heathkit SB-104

I remember lusting over this rig when I was a teenager in the 70’s.  It was way beyond my means back then, but seems much more affordable, 45 years later!  So I quickly dug out a crisp $100 bill and handed it over.

 

 
SP-604 speaker & power supply

 

 
Matching Microphone

Craig helped me carry it back to the RV, and we plugged it in to see if it was anywhere close to alive.  It did power up, the digits all lit, but showed an incorrect frequency.  atmospheric noise flowed from the speaker, but turning the VFO had no effect.  It was as if we were missing the VFO signal.

I didn’t want to tear into anything out in the desert, but felt confident that it could be restored. I confirmed that it was missing the VFO jumper on the back of the rig after getting it home.

I look forward to getting this working well.  I hear it can be a challenge, but that’s nothing new, if you follow my website much.  Stay tuned when I start work on it…

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