disassembly problematic. Also,
the front panel is plastic and
the paint is rather thin so that
after a little wear light from
the two pilot lamps can be seen
through any scratch or even
the silver paint. Heathkit tried
to reduce this by putting some
opaque tape between the right
hand pilot lamp and the front
panel. This pilot light indirect-
ly illuminates the band spread
slide rule dial and the S-meter
as well as the right side of the
main side rule dial. A separate
pilot light illuminates the left
side of the main side rule dial.
Interestingly, Heath uses two
different types of pilot bulbs.
The left bulb is a #53 and the
right bulb is a #1813. Both are rated at 14.4
volts but they have different light output.
The brighter bulb (the #53) is located to the
left of the main dial.
Heathkit SW-717!
(S/N 133 115120)
Last October at the auction I picked up an
SW-717. At first I was a bit hesitant due
mainly to the fact the main tuning knob
stuck out about 3/8” more than it should,
which meant perhaps the kit
was modified. Or perhaps the
knob was just not on correctly.
The latter seemed difficult to
believe. I won it in the auction,
but really wasn’t sure what I
had.
On initial inspection the tun-
ing shaft was definitely stick-
ing out too far; something was
amiss. there. Also one of the
knobs was missing, replaced
with a “chicken head” knob.
Looking inside, the circuit
board seemed intact but some
of the tuning coils were lean-
ing, one significantly. Later I
noticed one of the ceramic fil-
ters was soldered in “catty-
To Next Page
Loading...
