Nice work! The Collins cost about three times what the Heathkit cost. Keep that in mind. My biggest gripe with the Heath SB series was that cheesy VFO dial drive that is frequently defective.
We had the Collins KWM-2A as the primary HF transceiver at the Command Post at Vandenberg AFB CA when I got there in 1986. It was shortly replaced by a very sophisticated HF Transceiver codenamed Pacer Bounce.
Very good comparison, you are a skilled operator. I think the Collins is beautiful equipment but not really designed for CW and also the AGC seems too fast for my preference as it raises noise between words. I have recently built a tube transceiver and found you can buy a crystal filter at 9 MHz that is really good, but the VFO is quite a challenge I think. I have very nice results using a three pole LC audio filter for CW.
Thanks for sharing! I learned something new about the collins!
Nice work! The Collins cost about three times what the Heathkit cost. Keep that in mind.
My biggest gripe with the Heath SB series was that cheesy VFO dial drive that is frequently defective.
Collins where always a quiet expensive piece of equipment so thank God for Heathkit as it made an affordable entry radio to amateur radio...
The slop in the tuning In the Heathkits are a common problem with the Jackson Drives used for the VFO.
We had the Collins KWM-2A as the primary HF transceiver at the Command Post at Vandenberg AFB CA when I got there in 1986. It was shortly replaced by a very sophisticated HF Transceiver codenamed Pacer Bounce.
Do you remember who made the Pacer Bounce?
Very good comparison, you are a skilled operator. I think the Collins is beautiful equipment but not really designed for CW and also the AGC seems too fast for my preference as it raises noise between words. I have recently built a tube transceiver and found you can buy a crystal filter at 9 MHz that is really good, but the VFO is quite a challenge I think. I have very nice results using a three pole LC audio filter for CW.
I agree , the KWM-2 isn't good on CW but then again, I'm not a CW guy. I get around the AGC problem by keeping the gain down.
Great video! de W2CSI
Can you do a side by side on receive switching from one to another would be nice
Nope, I sold the SB101 last week.