Download Testing the Heath kW Kompact

The Little Bomb
Bill Siefkin W B6KEH
410 Audrain Drive
Glendale, Calif. 9 1202
"A 1000 watt, 5 band linear amplifier
weighing 7 pounds?"
Well, it is p ossible, it has finally been done,
it goes mobile, and best of all, it costs only
$99.95.
It's th e new Heathkit HA-14 "KW Kompact" linear amplifier. And "kompact" it is12 inches wide, 10 inches deep, 3 inches thick,
and weighing only 7 pounds!
Basically, Heath took their 5B-200 ( champion of the low cost kilowatts), removed the
power supply, reduced the metering fnnclions to two, and then shrunk the whole thing
The HA-14 uses either a p air of Tl60L's
or 572-B 's in a parallel, grounded grid, class
B configuration. It makes no difference which
tube number you get, because both will perform equally well. Driving power needed for
full rated output is 100 walls.
There is no blower. Ventilation of the two
graphite anode power tubes is accomp lished
by natural convection currents flowing through
the completely perforated steel cabinet. My
experience so far has indicated that a blower
is not necessary.
The KW Kompact features a built-in rela-
into a tiny cabinet.
The power supply comes extra. You can
tive power/S\VR meter. It measures relative
get either the HP-24 for 120/240 volt ac operalion at $49.95, or ( here you go mobile
fans ) the HP-14 for 12 volt, negative ground
d.c, op eration at $89.95. Both supply all voltages for a full, rounded 1000 watts PEP on
sideband, and, since they are separate, they
can be conveniently located remotely.
or simply the exciter alone. The meter aids
greatly in adjusting those sometimes balky
mobile antennas . The built-in antenna change.
over relay is in a neat litt le exciter controller'
circuit that makes it easy to switch from higl
..
power and 5WR of the exciter plus the linear,
Continu ed on poge 9
to low power in an instant. (and vice-versa )
Construction of the HA-1 4 could n't have
been simp ler. All of the parts are top q uali t y,
made in U.S.A. typ es. Assembly time from
parts to power was just 8 hours.
T he instructions were grea t. Detai ls are
given on how to hook the lin ear up to nearly
any exciter. T he manual even gives modification p rocedures to provide an ALe input fur
the Heath kit ~l odeIIlW-1 °,2 0 , and 32 singlebanders.
Aft er you have finished soldering, there is
one res is tance check to ma ke on the filamen t
line. Then you're ready for th e preliminary
smoke test. This consists of several bias and
fila ment voltage meas uremen ts . The high voltage is left disconnected, and no measuremen ts
are made on it.
The KW Kompact is very easy to operate.
There a re 5 con trols in add ition to the meter
on the front panel-tune, band select, meter
sensitivity, meter functi on, and on-off. 'Vith
the linear turn ed off and switched to the band
being used , you tune you r exci ter for 100
watts output. Then switch the lin ear "on" and
rotate the "tune" control for maximum outp ut
as shown on th e meter. Heath recommend s
that you work into an S\VH of 2 : 1 or less. I
have found th at you sta rt havin g diffi culty in
loadi ng if you try to use an antenna with an
SWII of 2 : I or over.
The HA-14 needed little adjustment when
moving fro m th e high to th e Jaw p ortion of
the band .
With m y little HW-32 and th e KW Kom pact, I acq uired new "prestige" un the airwaves . I can now ta lk to VK's and ZL's with
5-8 signals with just a trap vertical.
'''ith only four connections to make, it is
eas v to transfer the HA-14 from the shack to
the car. It's hard to exp lain the Feeli ng you
get when you have 1000 watts ill your mobile.
That ext ra p ower su re helps cu t t hrough the
QII~1. And d oes it ever surp rise a lot of hams
when they see their S-metcr peaking a-way
up there-from a mobile I I
I used the W ebster Top Sid er an tenna and
thei r gallon coils with very good results. It's
a good id ea to keep people awa y from your
mobile antenna wh ile tra nsmitting with th e
HA-14. Someone could get quite a surprise if
they get hooked up with it as yo u call CQ-
DX.
I put a sign on th e back b umper read ing
"CAUT IO;\,-1000 wa tts." You'd be surp rised
how it kept p eople [ W ill followin g TlI P too
closelv• O il the Freewa •vl!
Heath ki t's HA-14 KW Komp nct is a real
-ewel-eund, st rict ly state of the art.
. . . WB6KEH
- - ----..... . _,
A NEW SOLUTION TO QRM!
*
THIS REPRESENTS SElECTRONIX PHOTOGRAPHY.
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THIS REPRESENTS THE PERFORMANCE
OF SElECTRONIX FILTERS.
W E ADM IT tha t ou r photog rap hy will never se t
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1q S1 Selby Avenue, Los Angeles, Colifornio
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