Heathkit DX-100
$····
| Frequency | TX: 160–10 m (incl 11 m) |
| TX power | 125 W |
| Modes | AM, CW |
| Weight | 45.4 kg (100.1 lb) |
| Connector | SO-239 |
| Year | 1955 |
| antenna | SO-239 |
The big Heathkit transmitter. Everything built in: VFO, power supply, and modulator. 100-125W phone / 120-140W CW. No external accessories needed except an antenna, a complete transmitting station in one box. Thousands were built from kits and many still operate.
About 100 pounds (a station-in-a-box with a big plate-modulation transformer and supply). Kit build quality varies enormously by builder. The power-supply filter capacitors fail and replacements must be chosen carefully. Needs a strong table. (Despite some references, the DX-100 uses high-level plate modulation, not screen modulation.)
The DX-100 taught more people to build a transmitter than any other kit in history. Find one that was built by a careful person and you have a reliable 100W AM/CW transmitter. Find one built by a teenager in 1956 and you have a restoration project.
The Heathkit DX-100 is Heathkit's first full-featured amateur transmitter, a big, capable AM and CW transmitter kit from the mid-1950s that, with its built-in power supply and VFO, was a complete station-in-a-box. Its 15-tube design covers the 160 through 10 meter bands (including the old 11-meter band) and produces about 125 watts on AM and 140 watts on CW, a serious output for its day, all in a substantial cabinet weighing around 100 pounds.
Building a DX-100 was a major undertaking that rewarded the constructor with a powerful, self-contained transmitter capable of solid AM and CW operation. Its combination of real power, a built-in VFO, and the satisfaction of a big build made it hugely popular and a centerpiece of many 1950s stations. As one of Heathkit's iconic tube transmitters, the DX-100 (and the later DX-100B) is a treasured vintage piece, especially prized by AM enthusiasts.
It is a discontinued classic. See the first Heathkit transmitter, the AT-1, and the Apache.