Acquisition

In October 2018, I bought a used Collins 30S-1 HF amplifier off Craigslist! The seller and I carefully loaded the amp into my trailer, where I wrapped and secured it. The trip from the small oceanside community of Tsawwassen, BC to my home required about 30 minutes' highway driving. The Fall day was absolutely perfect!

A Bit of History

My childhood radio-mentor had a Collins S-Line transmitter and receiver; in addition he had the 30L-1 compact desktop-amplifier to go with these. It was all the best gear of the 1970s, but far out of the reach of a 15-year-old paper-delivery-boy's meager earnings. Eventually I *did* manage to save up enough to buy an amplifier, but it was a well-used homebrew amp with 6KD6 TV sweep-tubes. Even then, I wasn't really happy with this amp...

Thus, my desire for an amplifier took root, and high regard for Collins gear was firmly instilled.

Along the path of life, I de-constructed my 6KD6 amp, removing the good parts for re-use, and embarked on constructing a kind of clone of the 30L-1 / Clipperton-L amp with 4x 572B tubes. Unfortunately, this stalled due to life's busy-ness, new priorities, and increasing difficulty of finding builder-parts for radios.

Now, over 40 years later, I was able to purchase an amp: A legendary Collins 30S-1 - heavier-duty than anything I'd had before, and a true radio legend!

30S-1 wrapped for transporting, as it arrives home

Here, the amplifier arrives home

30S-1 unwrapped after transport, as it arrives home

Preparation

While the amplifier was still outside, I fired up my air-compressor and blew a cat's-worth of dust out of everything. I cleaned all the relays and switch-contacts, did a basic check of all the fuses, and carefully struggled to get this 160-pound amp into my ham-room.

I changed the plug on the amplifier's power-cord to match my existing wall-socket (6-20R). I removed the 4CX1000A power-amplifier tube, before applying any power.

First Power-Up

First power-up brought a lot of smoke :-( It seems the Bias Transformer T203 was very, very unhappy. I had hoped to turn the amp on, and quickly be using it; now, clearly I was actually going to have to look deep inside. My blissful ignorance slipped away...