Way back in February I ordered some new ham equipment and had it shipped by a partial-load shipper, which saves one considerable cost in money, but requires patience, because it typically takes a couple of months for something to arrive. The pile of boxes can be seen in the second photo in a post on A Dull Roar. Somewhere in that pile were several ham items that I quickly gathered and took down to the workshop ... where they remained inert for another week or so.
The first piece to come out was this fine old Heathkit T-Tuner, the 2060, which can tune the socks off just about anything and do it up to 2 kilowatts. It's successor, the 2060A, is the same except that it separates the balanced/single-line feed from the two coax inputs. In the case of the 2060 the balanced/single-line terminals are always "on". Not really a big deal for me as I only intend to use it with my 200' doublet. Built in, is a sturdy dual core balun, better than the single core one I typically use anyway. Why let that go to waste?
Unfortunately, the tuner was not quite in the prime condition that I was expecting, but it wasn't far off. Only the roller inductor really needed some TLC. I De-Oxit'd the surfaces, re-lubed the roller shaft with white lithium grease, and re-aligned it within its housing so that the right-angle nylon gear would mesh properly with its companion sticking out of the turns counter. There is a little warpage in that gear, but it seems to be working fine now. A bit of cleaning and a light coat of black spray paint on the top cover (not so much that the original spatter texture is diminshed, however), and it looks nearly new.
The final step was using the pre-set table in the manual and my RigExpert AA-54 to go through the highest capacitance settings for each band. After applying 100W into the doublet these settings proved to be within a whisker of what was needed. I did end up making one small mod to the tuner, one that looks as if it came with it, but I'll discuss that in my next post. 73!
The first piece to come out was this fine old Heathkit T-Tuner, the 2060, which can tune the socks off just about anything and do it up to 2 kilowatts. It's successor, the 2060A, is the same except that it separates the balanced/single-line feed from the two coax inputs. In the case of the 2060 the balanced/single-line terminals are always "on". Not really a big deal for me as I only intend to use it with my 200' doublet. Built in, is a sturdy dual core balun, better than the single core one I typically use anyway. Why let that go to waste?
Unfortunately, the tuner was not quite in the prime condition that I was expecting, but it wasn't far off. Only the roller inductor really needed some TLC. I De-Oxit'd the surfaces, re-lubed the roller shaft with white lithium grease, and re-aligned it within its housing so that the right-angle nylon gear would mesh properly with its companion sticking out of the turns counter. There is a little warpage in that gear, but it seems to be working fine now. A bit of cleaning and a light coat of black spray paint on the top cover (not so much that the original spatter texture is diminshed, however), and it looks nearly new.
The final step was using the pre-set table in the manual and my RigExpert AA-54 to go through the highest capacitance settings for each band. After applying 100W into the doublet these settings proved to be within a whisker of what was needed. I did end up making one small mod to the tuner, one that looks as if it came with it, but I'll discuss that in my next post. 73!
Looks like a great piece of gear and even though it needed some touching up I am sure it will serve you will for many years to come. It sure does have a reputation that has in the past made it a war horse of tuners.
ReplyDeleteI especially like that it's not that brighter Heathkit green. Really never liked that color much. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Casey, nice peace of equipment. Ready for going QRO. ;-) I like your new blog lay out. And of course the Twitter bird. I changed my domain / URL to pc4t.blogspot.nl 73 Paul
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul, I've got the change in. Yes, I'll talk about the QRO setup soon. Have to get the K2 back together first. 73!
ReplyDeletepostingan yang bagus tentang New (to me) High Power Heathkit Tuner
ReplyDelete