Got myself an SB-221!

I've been aiming to own one since I upgraded my license back in 2012 and I'm more interested on the old tube amplifier like those from HeathKit, Kenwood and Yaesu. The only thing that holding me back was the cost to get it shipped from US to Malaysia. The SB-200 and the likes can be had for around USD$400-600 but the shipping and handling can be costly due to the weight and customs charges, it might comes to a total of USD$200 for shipping cost.

My luck changed, on 24/12, I was browsing mudah website and was looking for something unrelated but was bumped to an advert, a Heathkit SB-221 for sale. The advert was posted about a month before that and according to the guy, there was no other enquiry other than from a person from neighbouring country. So, the deal went through and on 27/12, I got a very clean (from outside) and very good condition SB-221 with a 10M mod done. No other mods have been done since the amplifier was built and according to the OM, he hasn't turn it on for the last 10 years since he made a move to Malaysia.

Since I don't have a proper radio to test everything, I did only a turn-on test and let it run for half an hour. No burning smell, and the tubes glowed as expected. The only I did was to replace the broken 240V cheap plug with a much better one. The plate voltages for both CW and SSB are a bit shy to the one on the specs, probably due to the age but well within the 10% tolerance.

Anyway, before I get this connected to my current rig, a TS-590SG, I've ordered few upgrade kits from Harbach Electronics which include the soft-key, soft-start, meter board and the capacitors block.

Some photos when I took off the casing: