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I recently purchased a product that is listed here on QTH that is well worth all
that have Linear Amps to take a look at. Its a product called Amp Buffer. Its
manufactured and sold by K4AVU Amateur Radio Products. He's located in
Lexington, SC. The Buffer does the same function as Harbach Electronics
Soft Key kit but the Buffer is installed external to the Amp. Its a bit larger then a pack of cigarettes. It has a standard phono jack input from the relay on most new solid state rigs, and a standard phono jack output to the Linear relay input. The model he supplies with a built in relay (used on Heathkit Linears)
requires an outside wall wart which he can supply. The unit is "plug and play".
No modfying clasic amps. To say that the unit works great would be an understatement. It IS truly plug and play. I am using mine with a Yaesu FT-1000MP HF rig and one of four Heathkit Amps that I have..an SB-200, SB-201,
SB-220 and an SB-221. I fire each of them up from time to time to keep all the capacitors fresh and operative. I just up-plug the lead comming from the Amp Buffer that goes to the Amp, and plug it in to the Amp I chose to use that day.
What could be easier !? As for Customer Service, it is GREAT ! Paul Marsha,
K4AVU is very knowledgeable and VERY helpful. A great fellow ham to do business with. If your interested in this product or any of the other products he offers, look up his call and he lists his website. Check it out...believe me you
will NOT be disapointed.

What does it do?
Besides plug in easily?

I probably should have explained more as to what it does. When you have a newer solidstate HF rig, the relay voltages required to trip the relay on older Linear Amps, such as the Heathkit sb-200-201-220 and 221 will damage the solidstate HF rig. Harbach Electronics makes what he calls a "soft Key" kit that you build and wire inside the amp. It limits the voltages to the transceiver. The Amp Buffer does the same thing but is external with no need to take apart the amp which a lot of Hams do not want to do. Being an external device, its
"plug and play" as I said. Within minutes of receiving the unit, you will have you tube type older style linear up and on the air.