| ON8DM |
Rating:      |
2007-07-17 | |
| excellent |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I must agree with some reviews.It is doing a great job.Unfortunatly here in Europe you can't find such an amp for 400 dollars in good shape.
1000 dollars is not exceptional.
the one that i had never refused and putted out 1200 watts fm cont.No mods or other changes.
If you can find one buy it and keep it |
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| KB5VJY |
Rating:      |
2007-06-25 | |
| Amazing! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I had been looking for some time for a good HF amp but all I thought I could afford was a 300-500 watt amp. A friend of mine contacted me and let me know that he knew where one was I could buy for around 300 bucks!!!.. I couldn't say no.. but I was quite scared. We met up the next day with the amp in tow, it looked really good for a 30 year old amp. He said he fired it up on 80 for about 15 minutes. I got it home and took it apart (first thing I do with all equipment) There were no mods done to this amp, straight stock amp. Did a little house keeping, dusting here and their. After checking the caps, I put it back together and fired it up. The amp buzzed back to life and to my suprise, it was putting out 1,400 kw on 80. The fun part was interfacing it to my TS-450 but that is another story. Truly an amazing amp for the buck! |
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| KA0CSL |
Rating:      |
2006-10-30 | |
| BEST BANG FOT THE BUCK!!! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This amplifier is designed well. In my opinion (IT’S THE BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK!!!). The SB-220 is very reasonably priced and is a real work horse amplifier. I suggest 220V If possible (Less Sag). I recently sold my SB-220 because I purchased a Henry 8877 desktop amplifier (BIGGER, BADER, BETTER.) If you’re looking to drop the maul and bust pileups the SB-220 is a great start! You can use it for years and sell it for more than you bought it for hi hi. They have depreciated all that their going to and considering a new amp of its caliber is over 2 grand... Search the net there are a bunch of neat upgrades for this unit. Hypersil transformers, Capisitor banks, Rectifier & Meter assy’s, ect. Purchasing the Sb-220 is a dollar well spent and after you sell it at a profit it will be a dollar well earned.
73
KAØCSL
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| N4MWY |
Rating:      |
2006-08-26 | |
| my SB 221 works great |
Time Owned: N.A. |
I have an SB 221 with all of the mods. It works great-no problems. It will do 1 KW+ out.
The 2 3-500Zs are a classic; Ameritron makes one that appears to be just an update of the Heathkit SB 221 with mods and a few improvments.
For what they sell for, it is a bargain.
n4mwy |
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| W5GW |
Rating:      |
2006-05-31 | |
| Workhorse Amplifier |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Built my SB-220 in 1976. Has original tubes, never had any parts failure. Still in a 10/10 condition. Use it on RTTY and SSB only of 220 mains. Wish it had a standby switch, but I use an AmpKeyer with my new solid-state rigs for relay protection, so get my standby by means of it. You need to keep loading high or it can and will arc on you, but once you figure that out, it is not an issue.
I see these used in the $300-$500 range. Assuming good tubes and the electrolytics are okay, should be a good buy. A workhorse. |
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| K7UA |
Rating:      |
2006-03-20 | |
| Classic bargain |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I built a SB220 in the 1970s and ran it hard for over ten years. Then I got out of ham radio and sold it. I became active again six months ago and picked up another like new used SB220 that was gathering dust at a friends house. I ran it with my old TS940SAT for a few months and then upgraded the station to a new Icom transceiver and an Alpha 99. I still use the TS940/SB220 often. If you can find one at a fair price, buy it. It is a real bargain. |
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| W3PH |
Rating:      |
2005-12-08 | |
| Worked right away even after 20 years of hibernation |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Somewhere around 1985 I bought my SB-221 from a fellow who had just built it and needed the cash. I used it a couple of times, then got busy in my job, moved a couple of times, etc., and the SB-221 sat in storage for the next 20 years while I operated in non-QRO mode. Decided to dig out the amp and see if it still worked - I had ordered the various Harbach mods some time back and planned to install them, and I decided to live dangerously and just turn it on and see what happened, figuring I was going to replace whatever might blow anyway. Amazingly, it came right up, happily put out 1000 watts on CW with 85 watts or so of drive.
I've since installed the Harbach soft-key mod, parasitic suppressors, new fan (loud but effective) and capacitors, and blew out two decades worth of dust. Decided not to replace the antenna relay or power supply diodes until they need it. Works perfectly, tunes smoothly. |
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| AD5QP |
Rating:      |
2005-10-22 | |
| Even better than the first!! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| This one was billed in 1982, so it appears to be one of the last. I got it for $450 and it is near mint. Fedex broke the tubes which were shipped in a seperate box. Thank you Fedex..... I bought new tubes from RF Parts, and put it on the air. This one had been modified by the builder to include 10 meters. I get 850 to 900 watts out on 10 meters. Have not used it much on the lower bands, but I know it puts out more than 1200 watts. So, with my TS-520, I have a kilowatt station for under $1000!! I love it... |
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| ZL4AI |
Rating:      |
2005-06-03 | |
| Great AMP: Everything you heard is really true |
Time Owned: N.A. |
I wont repeat the same great statements about this. They are still true. It does all eveyone says here.
You are not supposed to run the amp with CW key down and get 1,400 or however many watts. So may people are running this amp WAY outside Heathkits advice guidelines
HeathKit manual says only run CW key down in SBB mode to get 1,000 watts max with 0.65 am plate current. DONOT CW KEY DOWN IN SSB MODE! ONLY run ssb in in SSB mode and keep the plate current between 0.2 and 0.3 amps with max of 0.33 amps on voice peaks.
I hope soem owners found this information useful, and even longer lives will be obtained from the SB221
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| W4VD |
Rating:      |
2005-03-06 | |
| Ahead of it's time |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I just got my 3rd SB220 in 27 years of hamming 3 days ago for 500 bucks from the original owner, no mods, original tubes, I added the Measures suppresors, removed the braid and added the 2 wire unblanced line Rich recommends, and replaced the eq resistors on the caps to cool them down and it works beautiful, the tubes are a bit soft, but this amp has been in steady service since it was built in the mid-1970's. I lucked into a pair of new Eimacs for an unbeleiveable price, so I'll have 650 in this one with new tubes, if these last as long as the first ones, odds are it will outlive me.
As all the others said, if you see one at a price from 400-600 dollars jump on it, if only to have as a spare to your Alpha, BUY IT. you just don't see this kind of reliable power for 500 dollars laying around. The amp was ahead of it's time in many ways, the 4.8 fil woltage and the built-in inrush protection on that fil transofrmer is why you see so many with original tubes. I recommend the suppressor mod, whether Harbaugh or Rich's kit they both work well and will lessen your chances of bangs in your amp from VHF oscillations, and it will also tune a lot smoother on the higher freqs, with my other ones with good tubes, I could get right at legal limit on 80, about 1400 on 40, 1300 or so on 20, 1200 on 15 and 1000-1100 on 10 depending on the line voltage, They work well on WARC, but to be safe I only use CW Voltage position and limit it to 1000 out on 17 and around 700-800 on 12, but they are very stable and work fine on WARC. I have heard there is a risk of damaging the bandswitch running full power on WARC bands. I know people who run them wide open on WARC and have never had a problem also, but better safe than sorry.
And you most certainly need to run it on 220, the voltage regulation is much better on 220, on 110 you will see a large HV drop under load. Not on 220 though.
Other than not having 160 (and there is a mod for that too), this amp is all you'd ever need. It truly is like a Timex, I have made my share of mistakes in the rush to get in a pile up and a lesser amp would have gone BOOM.
There is no better watt per dollar average in the hobby and there never will be a better one. I was young and foolish in my younger days, or I would still have the first one I bought, I have wised up since, this one is not for sale :-) |
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