Values are estimates from recent comparable sales — condition, accessories, and included extras vary. Always compare before buying.
Selling your Heathkit SB-220? Run its Rig Check → Answer the questions a sharp buyer will ask and get a condition report for your listing — a fully answered report lets a truly nice radio demand a good price.
Median sold price per month, trailing 1 months. Roughly flat over the period.
Based on classifieds listings marked SOLD — asking prices sellers marked as sold, not confirmed sale prices. Refreshed daily from our deal-scan comp checks.
| Date sold | Item | Price | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual sold records for this model are still being compiled — the fair-value estimate above is based on 7 recent sales. | |||
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The Heathkit SB-220 is the most legendary amplifier in ham radio -- a pair of Eimac 3-500Z tubes loafing along to a full legal-limit signal, sold as an affordable kit in the 1970s, and still everywhere half a century later. They are everywhere because they do not die: the design is brutally simple, conservatively rated, fully documented, and repairable with basic skills -- no unobtainium parts, and fresh 3-500Zs are still manufactured. That simplicity is also why every SB-220 conversation includes the word Harbach. The original filter capacitors are 45-plus years old and living on borrowed time; a rebuild -- cap board, rectifier and metering board with meter protection, soft-start, soft-key so your modern rig can key it safely -- is the standard playbook, and a unit that has had it done is worth real money over one that has not. Know the SB-221 footnote: when the FCC banned 10-meter amps, Heathkit deleted 10m and renamed it; most got converted back, so verify what is actually on the band switch. Buying used, look inside for arcing scars on the band-switch wafers and tuning capacitor, check tube condition (a fresh matched pair is a serious line item -- price it into your offer), and listen for the classic worn-relay symptom: receive audio that changes every time you un-key. At 55 pounds, the tubes travel separately or they arrive as souvenirs. A rebuilt, retubed SB-220 is not a project; it is a lifetime amplifier.
If it has not been done, yes -- budget for it. The original high-voltage filter electrolytics are decades past their design life; they dry out, lose capacitance, and can fail dramatically. The standard playbook is the Harbach kit set: replacement cap board, rectifier and metering board (which also adds the meter protection the stock amp lacks), soft-start to tame inrush current, and the soft-key mod so a modern solid-state rig can key it without damage. A seller who has done the Harbach work has the receipts -- that is worth paying for.
Electrically, almost nothing. When the FCC banned the sale of HF amplifiers covering 10 meters, Heathkit deleted 10m from the band switch and renamed it the SB-221. Heathkit even sold a conversion kit to put 10m back, and most owners did. When buying, verify which bands are actually on the switch and working -- do not assume. A 221 converted back to 10m is functionally a 220.
Neglect and instability, in that order. Dried filter caps, cooked parasitic-suppressor resistors on the tubes (if the color codes are unreadable, they are fried -- replace them or the amp can arc), worn T/R relay contacts, and unprotected meters that die in a fault. The catastrophic version is arcing from instability, which eats band-switch wafers and the plate tuning capacitor -- look for the scars inside before you pay. None of this is exotic; it is all documented, and the parts exist. That is exactly why the SB-220 remains the safest vintage amp bet.
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