The AM Forum

This was a spring announcement and according to some internet searches this particular announcement died a short time after it was announced.  Unless, its really coming back again!

Wow, Heathkit just keeps coming back from the dead!  If you look over the its turbulent history, it certainly has had a lot of owners.  I credit those that have tried to keep it heart beating.  Knowing nothing about the new Heathkit, they have a lot going against them being successful, just because of what people want today.  If they did a tube rig, it would be so expensive that few would sell so those days are over.  In the QRP kit world many are available today so they would have to do it cheaper and better than the current multitude of suppliers.  Also Heathkit had a reputation of doing things extremely well including the outstanding manuals they produced.  That came at an expense which ultimately the customer has to pay for.  Doing things at that level today and making a profit is difficult.  You currently have a lot of cottage industries with husband and wife as the company offering kits at reasonable cost.  The new Heathkit would have to do it either much better or much cheaper to attract a market.

So I wish them well and it would be good to see the business plan.


A friend just sent me this link. I know nothing about this new company but here is the link that was passed along to me.

http://heathkit.com/survey/index.php/278489?lang=en

Joe, GMS

I filled out the survey.  Would be great to have Heathkit back.  Hopefully they can bring back at least one "vintage" kit?  Perhaps a new version of the AT1?

I think something like a class D or E transmitter kit would be nice.

YES! That would be great

I read something recently about Heathkit claiming that it is still alive and offering one kit. They seemed so dismayed that people think Heathkit is gone!
YA Al, A POWERHOUSE Class E TX. 16-80 M, digital VFO, B'cast Audio, and adjustable output power for when conditions call fer it...
Didn't someone mention that we could get away with a 750W carrier and modulate that to produce 1500 W PEP?

I took their survey. It did not mention AM in the ham section.

I questioned them regarding AM later in the survey when given the opportunity.

73,
Jack

Well, here we go again.

I filled the survey out. Did the 'last' Heathkit "do" a customer survey?

klc

I worked at Heath from 1985 til 89. We had a guy that did lots of surveys and focus groups.

It was a fun company to work for.

73,
Jack

awesome! filled out the survey. hope, hope, hope....

Hi Jack,
Did you work at the factory or at a store.  Bert, WA3JYU worked at the Frazer, PA. store for a very long time until its closing.
73,
Joe, W3GMS

The name and trademarks were sold off when all the rest of the remaining assets were sold off in July 2012. Having just the name does not bring it back from the dead. The original company abandoned the kit market in 1992 without much of a fanfare or concern for their many loyal customers over the years. The designers, writers, assemblers, packagers, etc. have all moved on after 21 years. If and when a product appears with the name on it, it will not be the same company. There are lots of other kit manufacturers out there that have taken up the void over these last 21 years.

Hi Joe,

I worked at the factory. Headed up a small engineering group. Dream job for a young EE/Ham.

It was a great group of people to work with.

73,

Jack

Jack,
Did you know Bob Ellerton? I believe he was a customer tech support guru during that time period.
Bob

Survey seems to lean toward amateur radio. Makes me think this is a ham produced survey and probably one or more hams trying to resurrect the business.

FWIW,   http://www.aboutus.org/Heathkit.com

That was over a year ago. They had one kit product. We had this discussion back in July 2012: http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=31920.0

And here is the auction site selling off all the remaining Heathkit assets including the one kit inventory. Unfortunately, pictures are no longer there: http://auction.repocast.com/items.cfm?auction=2904&category=0&location=0&minprice=&maxprice=&page=1

Lots?

Elecraft cant write a manual, TenTec is of little interest to most and the others are mostly toys.
Having built scores of HK's, especially for others and 2 stores I can say their manuals are far above the rest.

I agree they wrote some great assembly manuals but that was the Heathkit way before it was dissolved.

Here's a list of kit manufacturers which unfortunately hasn't been updated in three years but I suspect many are still around.
http://ac6v.com/kits.htm

Then there's also the DZ Company, who is a member here, that has some great amateur radio kits. His assembly manuals have followed the same tradition of the Heathkit manuals from the "good old days".  http://www.dzkit.com/

Even MFJ offers some cool kits. Here's one: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-9380K

Then there's the "softrock" kits: http://wb5rvz.com/sdr/

And on and on.............

I waited and waited, as a 13 yr old, for my first attempt to build the EA-3 14 watt amplifier. "Railway Express" was the package deliverer those days.
Too bad I was not a Ham op at that time. MANY great kits. Many wonderful memories.

Fred

Never heard of them; have they sold any and more important what has the contest community said about them? Thats the true indicator of how they stand up in QRM and not some lab photo using 2 cherrypicked signals.


You call that a kit just because you have to connect some panel parts and knobs?

If hams want to get into state of the art kits they better be able to work under a microscope. I did microwave to 300GHz before retiring and have a full B&L microscope, and soldering setup with access to a wire bonder. Its not that hard to get acclimated as long as you dont have the shakes; the microscope makes up for poor eyesight ;)


Way too entry level but on the right track and fine for many.

Give me an upgraded Flex 5000 and I could get interested but I feel SDR is still a few years off as a serious all mode high specs transceiver. It will take the resources of one of the "Big 3" to make that happen unless the Chinese become serious as a high tech and quality source.

Carl

I'm sure you're smart enough to locate and read any reviews on the web. Here's a Dayton presentation given in 2012 on their transceiver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6cLQ3WLPXU There's also a product review of their 40 meter HT on the ARRL web site.


For many, microscopes, bonders, etc. are not necessary to build a kit. As far as the MFJ kit, you obviously didn't even take the time to review the kit manual. http://www.mfjenterprises.com/pdffiles/MFJ-9380K.pdf


"upgraded Flex 5000"; What in the world does this have to do with "kits". A service manual is available for the Flex 5000 so if hardware diddle is your fantasy, there is a road map to get you started.

Nothing useful there about the transceiver, all marketing hype. Ive no interest in their toy stuff.



The intro link you gave earlier was enough to tell me what I wanted. Besides it is still MFJ.




It means that if someone comes out with a Flex 500 style radio but much more improved/developed and as a kit at a decent savings over assembled I would be interested. Im not holding my breath nor am I interested in creating multi layer PC boards.

Jack,
Glad to hear that you worked at the Heath factory.  I am sure you had a lot of fun and wore many hats which benefited you when your career took you in different directions. 

I enjoyed reading the Heath Nostalgia book by Terr Perdue, K8TP.  Wonder if you knew Terry?  Chuck's Pensions book is another great  reference. 

My first Heathkit at age 14, was a GR-64 soon to be followed with a DX-60A. 
 
73,
Joe, W3GMS

   

My first Heathkit was the Apache transmitter at age 15. It think it took me almost 6 weeks to assemble the entire package. Worked the first time I plugged it in and I still use it today. I better go change all those caps; they're over 50 years old.  :)

Well, fully outfitted it's a $5000 transceiver.  I don't know whether it's worth that or not .. but what you and I call a "toy" must differ in some significant ways.  Rather than dismiss it out of hand, why not actually get some information?  It may not be the Wizardee 5000 dxSDX bravissimo! DX350i that all the contesters drool over, but perhaps it would be worth more than a hand wave ... and a dis out of hand.

I built many Heathkits as a teenager and later and loved doing so, but that train has left the station long ago.

State of the art is too complicated for a home builder to built at home. Sure, you can build some simple QRP rigs etc, but why not just build them from scratch?

Look at the technical level of present QST articles and those of 40 years ago.

Heathkit aint going to be reborn.

Of course you are correct. But since Carl is not interested it's therefore not important - not only for him but for all of us. We just need him to show us the light.

I had an office right down the hall from Terry Perdue. His book Heath Nostalgia is a good read. Terry also did a CD called Heathkit the Early Years.

Last I heard Terry was working at AEA. AEA is belly up I believe. I don't know where Terry is now, he may be retired.

It was a fun era. I think a lot of techs and engineers got their start building kits.

73,

Jack

I wasnt referring to the Sienna as a toy by any stretch, sorry for the confusing post. In fact Id love to hear from serious owners who have made real world comparisons between it and the Big 3's top of the line.  I was referring to the 40M HT as the toy.

Nor am I against any company finding a successful niche market with kits. What I personally find uninteresting, too low end, etc, should hold no bearing against anyone elses needs or choices no matter how one individual continually tries to twist my comments to his own warped views. Heck, I even sold my own line of kits from 1985-98 when operating as Radiokit.



Are there any paper caps in there Pete? I havent touched an Apache in decades so usually refrain from commenting beyond standard troubleshooting suggestions with the schematic. Based upon various DX-100's Ive overhauled the past few years all the papers and all electrolytics were leaky while every carbon resistor was well within spec except in the parasitic suppressors. Leaky caps in the audio stages can certainly degrade its performance as I ran various on the air tests with Tim and others (several from AMfone) as I progressed with the replacements and then upgrades on the last one I did last month.
I built my first DX-100 at 16 in 1957 and then several for others until I joined the USN in 59 and actually learned electronics from the pros. QST and the ARRL HB was the start for which Im still grateful.

Carl

Hi Jack,
The theme this year at AWA is Heathkit.  I am sure you could really contribute to the Heathkit story.  If you have any interest, I could put you in touch with the chairman of this years convention which happens in August at the National Convention in Rochester, NY. 

Heathkit made a major impact not only within Ham Radio, but other area's as well in those outside our community with electronic interest.

Great on knowing Terry.  Do you and other former Heath employee's stay in touch? 

73,
Joe, W3GMS