Collins 30S-1 S/N 206 and Henry 2K RF Amplifier Restore
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- I have had the opportunity and pleasure to restore two units of Collins 30S-1 and one Henry 2K RF amplifier. This is a short video of those amplifiers and their restoration to good operating condition with very little effort.
Heavy duty tech stuff!! Nice restoration video. Good explanations and close up views! Thanks for sharing this! ~ VK
3B28 is the right way to do it ! No flash back, last almost forever ! Nice walk through of 2 great amplifiers that will remain servicable forever. Thanks ! 73 W6WUH
Very nice. As a teenager in the ‘70s, I dreamed of owning a Henry 2K amplifier! It’s great to see this fine vintage equipment still in perfect working order. Thanks for showing it to us!
This is the first piece of Henry equipment I have had the pleasure to work on and it is of the highest quality components and simple design. It should run for another 50 years now that the small things have been taken care of.
2 beautiful amps you have there!! I have the Collins KWS-1 and the matching 75 A4 receiver, Wish I had a Henry 2K but right now I do not have the funds! Good video I enjoyed it much!!
Hello there- awesome video- Did you put any protection on the 2 Analog meters on the Henry? I just acquired a 2k serial number 11- 73
Back to back diode shunts on the meters are a very good idea but, no, I did not do that to the Henry. Wish I had. They are beauties, aren't they? I am sure you are going to enjoy yours. 73 WA4QGA
Most HV spark plug wire has 2-3 hundred ohms of DC resistance per foot. Does that wire have a large copper center conductor and where did you get it?
This is real copper core spark plug wire. I am familiar with the "radio resistance" type spark plug wire, as they used to call it and I assume still do.
The radio-resistance spark plug wire is necessary in a car to prevent terrible noise on radios and this real copper core spark plug wire will cause a car to create terrible radio noise. I have done this before. I remembered it was called, "Packard 440 spark plug wire". I suppose it is used on race cars, etc. but it works great for all HV wiring. You can find it quickly on Ebay.
It is always a good after-work evening when Elpaso Uploads :) I look forward to when my new tube amp projects arrive, I can't wait! I've built/restored so many tube amps now, my family thinks I'm crazy having so many amplifiers and speakers hehe
My wife would certainly agree with you that I have too many amplifiers and whatever else exists around here that I have built or bought. I like to say, are we obsessed with our building of equipment or possessed by it ? 🙂
Just can't beat a Henry!
Very nice job, I have a couple one is a classic 2k n the other one is just a Henry 2k , one day I will repair them
Thank you so much for doing these videos. I always learn something.
Thanks for the great video and always replying to my comments and questions.
What size wire is the spark plug center conductor? 14ga or bigger/ smaller?
I don't know its size but it surely isn't bigger than #14. I am going to guess 16 AWG but for HV, current is likely in the mA range so it will be fine. I also use meter lead wire which is probably #18 or smaller and it all works great. I do try to reply to all my email but sometimes I miss things. You all are a great bunch I have come to know from YT over the years.
“I wanted one of these since I was 12 years old”. Ha ha! Yes David, me too! I had a Hallicrafters HT-33B, which I really liked, but the PL-172 tube has gotten hard to find and very expensive these days. Today, I’d go for the Collins 30S1.
Hi Bill,
I wasn't familiar with the HT-33B but looked it up and studied it. A very interesting amplifier and I would think it is a highly collectable amplifier these days. I see the PL-172 is somewhat rare and the 4CX1000A is a bit more available. That non-inductive resistor loading is exactly how I built my homebrew 4CX1000A back in 1983 and ran it for over 30 years - same tube now in my 30S-1. Bias on the 4CX was only -50 so 50 ohms, 50 volts turns out to be 50 watts to drive it. It was definitely easy to drive and so is the 30S. You have a nice and rare amp with your Hallicrafters. I wish I had a PL-172 to give you. 73
Do you have any use for Lock-In Amplifiers?
I don't know what, Lock-In amplifiers are.
I'll have to look to see what it is used for. I know someone who has three nice old 1970's Lock-In amplifiers and other old testing equipment . I also acquired a very nice Fluke 332D DC voltage standard@@ElPasoTubeAmps
Very good on the Fluke 332D. I love instruments like that. I have a Keithly voltage standard much like the Fluke that goes to 999.99 DC volts in 10mV increments. It is only good for 25 mA so I can't power an amplifier with it but it has come in handy many times.
I got this from Wiki about lock-in amplifiers. Is this what it is? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock-in_amplifier
@@ElPasoTubeAmps thanks for the information, very interesting article.
Oh..I would love one of these...Clint - VK3CSJ
I wanted this when I was a kid but I might as well want a Lear Jet... now 59 years later, I get one for free for fixing another one and the Henry. I love it and use it often, just an hour or so ago. People always compliment it and in 1983 I build and ran for 30 years a homebrew 4CX1000A somewhat based on the 30K-1. The 30K-1 can only run AB1 and the Collins version grounds the grid and drives the cathode with the screen supply inverted so the screen can be directly connected to ground. It also runs the screen at 200V instead of the Eimac 325V. Mine was grid driven with a 50 ohm load and not input resonance tuning. Worked great and would do the 1680 watts Eimac stated. I guess Collins went to their extra steps for low distortion. Maybe we will hear each other now that DX is good. 73 WA4QGA
I use spark plug wire too! I also use the silicon wire from car O2 sensors I pick from scrap yards.
Spark plug wire, meter lead wire and the inner conductor of coax - I can't think of anything any better for HV wire.
@@ElPasoTubeAmps I've used double insulated electric fence feeder wire, with a stainless steel solid core.
I have watched a lot of your videos. I find your tube audio and rf amazing. I had repaired and built some stuff over the years but your knowledge is very in depth. I like your forethought of when you rebuilt that Collins transmitter and made it a hf ham amp. You repurposed it and made it nice looking and useful to anyone in the hobby. You definitely have a skilled gift. I came a day short of owning a Henry like you have there for 500$ back in November of 2009. It was just as clean and I think it had the 3-400s like yours, unless it was a early 3-500z model. At any rate it looked the same as yours. The guy that sold it, I seen it because they had already paid him and were coming back to pick it up in a day or two. The amp had hardly any time on it, you could just tell in fact the guy that sold it bought it from a bank settling an estate of an elderly ham 15 to 20 years prior. After He bought it from the bank he ran the 240 volt line and outlet to amp where he had it located and never used it! I however did buy a Hunter bandit 2000 C from him with bad filter caps for 300$. He wouldn't come down in price. The Hunter was in fair shape other than the caps so I bought it. Probably because I was so sick on missing out on the Henry. So if I would have been quicker I could have bought a perfect like new Henry 2k for 500$, but instead bought a broken Hunter bandit 2000 C for 300$. Sorry for the long story, but you know what you have there, so I wanted to share that with you. Love your knowledge and gear. Your the best be safe and take care.
Hi Chris - thank you for your kind words. Now my story of the 30K-1.
Got it in 1975 for $75 and kept it as a museum piece for a few years but decided it was to nice to just let it sit around. It was missing some major parts - like the plate transformer...
Its advertised weight is 355 pounds and I am here to tell you, it is real. Built in 1947 from a melted down WWII Navy ship. When I and a friend got that monster into my basement twenty nine years ago, when I was a much younger man, I remember looking at him and saying, " I will never try to move that thing again". On the other hand, it rolls around as smooth as if were on glass. Those wheels are so hard they must be made of diamonds to not have a flat spot on them after 75 years. I felt lucky we didn't kill ourselves getting it down the steps. In contrast the 30S-1 only weighs 160 pounds and I and a strong fellow took it down a few weeks back with no issue. I think the Henry 2K weighs the same. Both built like tanks, as it is said.
Yes, indeed, the Henry 2K is a beauty. Unfortunately, I read and then tried a pair of 4-400A in the sockets but they are too tall and I have read the 3-500Z's are too tall also so we have to use the 3-400Z's. Beautiful tube and I have plenty. I posted a video where I actually got more power from a vintage Eimac 3-400Z than a new production 3-500Z.
I wasn't familiar with the Hunter Bandit 2000C but looked it up and see it runs a pair of 3-500Z. That should do the trick. I think $300 was great for such an amplifier... As for the electrolytic capacitors - that is pretty much the story in all of the vintage amplifiers. The 30S had to have all its electrolytic capacitors replaced. I don't remember the Henry having any but it is a simple GG amplifier. I had to do the same thing with the capacitors in my 30L-1 when I got it. The HV capacitors in the 2K and 30S-1 are oil and are perfectly good. Interesting how the HV wires in the 30S-1 dried out and became so hard and brittle. Different models had different types of transformer connections.
Where do you live, Chris, or what is your call. Would you be interested in a 30S-1?
@@ElPasoTubeAmps I live in Cedar Rapids, Ia. Good ol Collins town USA. Yes a 30S1 would be nice sure. You could shoot me your email and I could give you my # or visa versa. But we are pretty far apart. I think I may have heard you on 40 meters AM a while back talking about mic amplifiers, it sounded like your voice anyway. There probably is quite a bit of Collins stuff here in town, but a lot have passed, so you have to know the right people. Of course you know how that goes. Let me know, Thanks.
@@chrisolson968 I talk with a fellow every Wednesday (KE0SSP) at 2 PM EST on 14.156 who lives in Iowa. My direct email is TheAudioShop@SBCGlobal.Net and you can see my QRZ page at WA4QGA. My email and information is correct there also. Here is the 30S-1 thing. My friend here in El Paso had three 30S-1 and one Henry 2K. He gave me a 30S-1 to fix a 30S-1 for him and his 2K. That is it but he also has another 30S-1 that needs help. I have seen it and I think it is all there. I could test the 4CX1000A and I believe with a few hours work, it would be back on the air. He and I talk regularly and I have told him I would fix it, for free, to get/give/sell to someone that would actually use it and not just try to part it out and sell it on Ebay. I think I am actually talking about very little to no money. Email and we will see if this goes anywhere in case you would want one of these beauties.
@@ElPasoTubeAmps Sounds great. I will email you later today. I have to get some shut eye, as I have to be up early. Checked out your stuff. You like Collins stuff for sure. One thing I noticed with hams. The ones that say they hate Collins gear don't turn it down if they find it. 73 and look forward to getting with you later today. Thx
Love the work you do on those historic pieces of kit!
It is getting harder to make videos but an opportunity to document such nice pieces of vintage equipment may only come once in a lifetime so, for the sake of posterity and the hope that it may help others I still find the drive to document what I discover in the way of keeping repairs as original and simple as possible. Thank you for your nice comment and encouragement.