Uploaded February 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In late 1981 I was offered a job in the Heathkit amateur radio development lab . I had been working in the Heathkit service department on amateur radio equipment . To be hired in engineering I was told that to be hired in engineering I had 2 weeks to assemble the very first Heath SS9000 from schematics and boxes of parts . At Heathkit they would give you a chance to prove you could do the job and if you did well you got the job you did not need an engineering degree if you could do the work it was a great place to work . I surprised the Heath engineers assembling a good working SS9000 in a little over one week this surprised the engineers and it surprised me too .
I remember I did it by imagining I had before me a Heathkit assembly manual and in my head was following the steps in that imaginary manual . Well it may sound strange but it worked ! all I had there to do this with was the schematic wiring diagrams and boxes of parts and a well equipped work bench no one had assembled one before . Now many years later I was offered some boxes of SS9000 parts in a trade from my friend Gary which I accepted and after months of the parts sitting on a shelf in the basement I finally took a look at what was there I was thinking "this looks like Heathkit engineering stuff " . One SS9000 chassis had stickers on it with my initials on them and the power interface circuit board was installed upside down . I remembered assembling that first SS9000 at Heathkit and I had installed that one circuit board upside down it worked just fine that way and one of the other engineering lab techs Bob Hutchins " I think" was his name said That little circuit board is upside down but that is ok
it works fine . So here I was looking at this SS9000 many years later and I see that circuit board in there upside down and I see stickers I had put in there to identify this SS9000 with MY initials on them . Holy Cow ! I was looking at the very first SS9000 and it had come back me . So this is a video showing the completion of a checkout of this historical Heath SS9000 the very first ever built . For those of you who might have a SS9000 and want to try the passband tuning mod it is more than just disconnecting a wire as I said in the video (my goof) you just need to remove the two connectors from plug P804 the blue wire and violet wire and connect them together I am thinking this is pins 6 and 7 .
I took them out of the connector "carrier" and stuck them in another 3 pin carrier with a u shaped jumper wire plugged into it to connect them together . Then wrapped it in tape lest it contact something in there .
One last comment I did turn that little power interface circuit board over . 73 Bob
In late 1981 I was offered a job in the Heathkit amateur radio development lab . I had been working in the Heathkit service department on amateur radio equipment . To be hired in engineering I was told that to be hired in engineering I had 2 weeks to assemble the very first Heath SS9000 from schematics and boxes of parts . At Heathkit they would give you a chance to prove you could do the job and if you did well you got the job you did not need an engineering degree if you could do the work it was a great place to work . I surprised the Heath engineers assembling a good working SS9000 in a little over one week this surprised the engineers and it surprised me too .
I remember I did it by imagining I had before me a Heathkit assembly manual and in my head was following the steps in that imaginary manual . Well it may sound strange but it worked ! all I had there to do this with was the schematic wiring diagrams and boxes of parts and a well equipped work bench no one had assembled one before . Now many years later I was offered some boxes of SS9000 parts in a trade from my friend Gary which I accepted and after months of the parts sitting on a shelf in the basement I finally took a look at what was there I was thinking "this looks like Heathkit engineering stuff " . One SS9000 chassis had stickers on it with my initials on them and the power interface circuit board was installed upside down . I remembered assembling that first SS9000 at Heathkit and I had installed that one circuit board upside down it worked just fine that way and one of the other engineering lab techs Bob Hutchins " I think" was his name said That little circuit board is upside down but that is ok
it works fine . So here I was looking at this SS9000 many years later and I see that circuit board in there upside down and I see stickers I had put in there to identify this SS9000 with MY initials on them . Holy Cow ! I was looking at the very first SS9000 and it had come back me . So this is a video showing the completion of a checkout of this historical Heath SS9000 the very first ever built . For those of you who might have a SS9000 and want to try the passband tuning mod it is more than just disconnecting a wire as I said in the video (my goof) you just need to remove the two connectors from plug P804 the blue wire and violet wire and connect them together I am thinking this is pins 6 and 7 .
I took them out of the connector "carrier" and stuck them in another 3 pin carrier with a u shaped jumper wire plugged into it to connect them together . Then wrapped it in tape lest it contact something in there .
One last comment I did turn that little power interface circuit board over . 73 Bob
