KW2000B SSB Transceiver
The British made KW2000B transceiver is a very nice SSB transceiver. It has excellent selectivity (thanks to a huge Kokusai mechanical filter) and 2 kHz dial markings. The KW2000B even has RIT, a feature which few transceivers of the '60's had. The biggest annoyance I noticed with this one was the VFO following AC line voltage fluctuations, but that was corrected easily enough by simply changing the VFO tube type from the specified 6U8 to the similar (but superior) 6EA8. This particular KW2000B obviously needs cabinet paint, but the front panel has survived the decades in decent shape.
The KW2000B design appears to have borrowed heavily from the Collins KWM-2. The KW2000B uses the same frequency conversion scheme as the Collins KWM-2, a VFO tuning 200 kHz and a 455 kHz mechanical filter. The cabinet similarities with the KWM-2 are especially striking.
Inside, the design features capacitors for variable tuning rather than inductors like the KWM-2. The large cylindrical object directly behind the VFO is the Kokusai mechanical filter. One of the novelties of the KW2000B's construction is a complete absence of terminal strips. Instead, component leads are pig-tailed together. (See picture at bottom.) This approach actually seems to have worked much better than it sounds. They certainly managed to minimize lead length using this approach.
Below: View of underside wiring. Note the numerous joints with leads pig-tailed together. In some cases, such as the common ground points above the tube sockets (both tubes sockets at left) the connection is secure, neat and provides excellent electrical properties. In other cases, as seen with the 2-watt resistors in the lower left or the 3-wire junction below (middle upper portion of photo), the concept seems to have been carried to an absurd extreme.
