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Heya all! I recently bought out a station of a friend of mine, and I'm curious as to how I should hook it up.

I got a Yaesu FT-100D in great condition with a Heathkit SB-200. I also got an Ameritron ARB-704 interface as well with the setup. My friend had this all working at one point, but when I assembled it all up, I can't get the radio to key the linear! I'm wondering if there's something I am missing when I am hooking all this up?

Has anyone run a similar setup that might be able to guide me thru the process? My friend can't remember how it was hooked up, as it all has been in storage for a few months. However he did say that everything worked when it was put into storage. I have all the proper cords and that runs between the radio and the interface, and from the interface to the linear. I went to Ameritron's site and I have everything hooked up correctly, and the interface shows that I'm keying up, but no go on keying the linear. I'll try to provide as much info as needed to get this going... HELP!! LOL


~Cheers~

__________________
Bases: Cobra 2000 GTL, President Washington, President Madison, Tram D201A
Mobiles: Cobra 146GTL, Midland 79-893 (NIB), Midland 13-893 (27.555), President P300

http://www.ameritron.com/pdffiles/PNP-35.pdf

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BASE: Kenwood TS-2000 w/Alpha Delta DX-CC, Diamond X50A, Sirio SY27-4, and IMAX 2000.
MOBILE: Galaxy DX99V w/RF Limited CR-577 mic, Sirio Z-180. Yaesu FT-8800R & Diamond NR-770.
"...2 WR-011..."

Yep, I have that cable. I have it plugged in, and when I TX the radio, the TX light on the interface comes on. So I'm good there, it just doesn't key up the amplifier. I can key the amp directly by grounding out the center conductor of the ANT RELAY RCA jack in the back of the linear, but nothing when I hook up the interface. That's why I was wondering if I did something wrong.... Perhaps the interface got shorted out somehow, and it's not working right?

~Cheers~

__________________
Bases: Cobra 2000 GTL, President Washington, President Madison, Tram D201A
Mobiles: Cobra 146GTL, Midland 79-893 (NIB), Midland 13-893 (27.555), President P300

I'd start with the cables. I bet one of them is broken internally at the connector.

Ok, figured out the issue, the relay is real stiff, meaning it takes full grounding for it to close. The interface pulls the connection to .7V to ground thru a diode. It's not achieving full connectivity to ground to complete the circuit to the relay to close. It tries to close, but with the spring on the relay being extra tight, it just can't quite pull to the closed position to key up the linear.

Guess my next question is... is there anything else I could use for an interface between the radio and the linear? Open to suggestions. Thanks!

~Cheers~

__________________
Bases: Cobra 2000 GTL, President Washington, President Madison, Tram D201A
Mobiles: Cobra 146GTL, Midland 79-893 (NIB), Midland 13-893 (27.555), President P300

Use the interface to switch a small relay and use that relay to switch the amp.

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Thought of that, but there isn't enough voltage in the interface to switch a relay. I called up Yaesu, and they said there's no real way to switch a Heathkit SB-200 unless it has the Harbach modifications done to it.

Fortunately, the guy I bought the radio/linear from has another Heathkit SB-200 with all the Harbach mods done to it. He said if I swapped linears and gave him $50.00 that it was a deal. Gonna go to swap him now. I'll have this thing going yet.

I do appreciate the replies!

~Cheers~

__________________
Bases: Cobra 2000 GTL, President Washington, President Madison, Tram D201A
Mobiles: Cobra 146GTL, Midland 79-893 (NIB), Midland 13-893 (27.555), President P300