Uploaded January 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here are tips on working on Multi connector strips used in the SS9000 Heath tranceiver . These connector carriers are a reddish brown or can be many other colors too but Heathkit used the reddish brown ones and there are lots and lots of them in the SS9000 . Checking them and repairing them is an easy task if you know how and a real hassle if you don't so heres how to do it . These connectors are also used in many other pieces of Amateur radio equipment as well as household appliances ,radios,TV's etc they are very common . These I believe are Molex mini KK connectors and they are still available . I saw some on Ebay yesterday. It is a good practice to check these visually before trying to service a circuit board your whole problem may just be a collapsed connector insert . How these get collapsed I am not sure it may be that one of the pins on the circuit board was bent and it went in to the connector wrong somehow all I know is they do collapse and they usually work fine if you remove them and bend them back in shape. One other problem that showed up recently was my SS9000 would occasionally have a problem with the digital readout sometimes digits would blink strangely when tuning other times the digits would just quit and all go black . The problem I found after trying everything else was the tiny molex strip connectors along the top of the front panel board were intermittent where they had been crimped .To cure this I soldered them just behind
the crimp where the wires are bare going into the crimp. This was done by removing the connectors one at a time , putting a teeny bit of rosin liquid solder flux there and soldering each one using a very tiny soldering pencil and .015 inch extremely thin solder . This cured the problem . 73 Bob
Here are tips on working on Multi connector strips used in the SS9000 Heath tranceiver . These connector carriers are a reddish brown or can be many other colors too but Heathkit used the reddish brown ones and there are lots and lots of them in the SS9000 . Checking them and repairing them is an easy task if you know how and a real hassle if you don't so heres how to do it . These connectors are also used in many other pieces of Amateur radio equipment as well as household appliances ,radios,TV's etc they are very common . These I believe are Molex mini KK connectors and they are still available . I saw some on Ebay yesterday. It is a good practice to check these visually before trying to service a circuit board your whole problem may just be a collapsed connector insert . How these get collapsed I am not sure it may be that one of the pins on the circuit board was bent and it went in to the connector wrong somehow all I know is they do collapse and they usually work fine if you remove them and bend them back in shape. One other problem that showed up recently was my SS9000 would occasionally have a problem with the digital readout sometimes digits would blink strangely when tuning other times the digits would just quit and all go black . The problem I found after trying everything else was the tiny molex strip connectors along the top of the front panel board were intermittent where they had been crimped .To cure this I soldered them just behind
the crimp where the wires are bare going into the crimp. This was done by removing the connectors one at a time , putting a teeny bit of rosin liquid solder flux there and soldering each one using a very tiny soldering pencil and .015 inch extremely thin solder . This cured the problem . 73 Bob
