Whatever Happened to Heathkit

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Article in the recent Electronic Design.

http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&ArticleID=20689&bypass=1

[WB2YGF]

This was also in the other Heathkit manual thread.

Article incorrectly states that manuals are available from HES.

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=18631.msg131890#msg131890

[Jim, W5JO]

This is interesting.  I saw that original agreement between data pro and Heathkit.  The one on the site today is different and worded differently.  Some of the information is missing and the legacy manual ownership has been added.

Then to really muddy the whole thing is the pages all look original until the signature page.  It is obviously a copy of the one in the original post.  There is something fishy here.

[k4kyv]

The article also incorrectly states that electronics kits in the 50's and 60's sold at a fraction of the cost of a finished product.  As I recall, with the kit you saved about 30%.  I remember that EF Johnson, Eico and other companies offered products either in finished or kit form, and that's the amount of saving you could expect.  Of course, in 1963 a Heathkit slopbucket rig might cost a fraction of a Collins or Central Electronics. That was when the introduction of "sideband for the masses" was radically changing amateur radio.

The way kits could have continued in this day of complex proprietary IC chips, subminiature components and SMT, would have been to offer the kits in the form of pre-assembled plug-in modules and printed circuit boards instead of a pile of resistors, capacitors, IC's and transistors.  The builder would assemble the cabinet and enclosure and wire up the non-printed circuit sections that might include the power supply and attaching the pc card receptacles to the harness wiring.  Best of all, in addition to  standard kits, options could be offered for various modules, so that one could design one's own rig from a block diagram and then order the modules to put it together.  Kind of like "home building" a computer out of standard off-the-shelf parts.  This could have been a tremendous boost for amateur radio because the average ham would have an alternative to to-day's basic choices of either plug 'n play appliance operation or scrounging through the boxes under vendors' tables at Dayton for usable parts for a homebrew rig.

[W3RSW]

Don, you've just described the Elecraft K3.  I hope others follow this model of kit design.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Anything less than 100 percent of the factory built price is a fraction.

Technically, even the cost for the kit was more than the cost of the a factory built version, it could be expressed as a fraction.

[W1RKW]

Anyone still have their first Heathkit?  I have my first 2 kits, a stereo tuner and amp. I built them in 1973 and 74 when I was 13 and they still work and look good.

[WB3JOK]

I've still got an IP-20 power supply and an IO-12 scope, both mostly built by my dad (with some help from me) around '69...

and the scope has always had low-frequency vert. amp distortion below about 400 Hz when it warms up, but not for the first 30-60 seconds after a trace appears. The defective stage is the cathode follower (a 6AB4, IIRC) and a new tube didn't fix it... nor any other components around that stage... it's haunted 

[nq5t]

Anyone still have their first Heathkit?  I have my first 2 kits, a stereo tuner and amp. I built them in 1973 and 74 when I was 13 and they still work and look good.

Yes.  V-7A VTVM built 52 years ago in 1957.  Still use it.  Wouldn't part with it.

My second kit the same year was an Ocean Hopper.  Although I lost track of the original many years ago, I still have one.

[W2VW]

I still have my Heathkit GR-2001 color tv which I built in 1977.

Found a N.O.S. crt for it about 5 years ago. Installed and never did the alignment. Looks like it's on acid.

Sherman W2FLA sez he had a pending deal and business plan to save Heathkit back in the day.

[ka3zlr]

I was a Weirdo I went for the test Equipment...It all worked..But Nicer stuff came out and it went...as my Job prospects got better...

Those were good years man...

[KA8WTK]

My first Heathkit was a 5 channel CB. It is long gone.
My second was a GR-64 receiver. A receiver so bad they published no sensitivity or selectivity numbers for it. But I thought it was the best thing I ever played with. I still have it today.
For an experiment I tapped the IF and took it out to a Softrock. The results were amazing! Listening to the GR-64 on 75 meters was a mess of slopbucket signals. Turn up the Softrock and you could pick out the Am QSOs on 3.885 that were buried in the noise and hear them clearly.

Bill KA8WTK

[WB2YGF]

The first three Heathkits I built were the R sub box, the C sub box and the transistor tester in the poly case.  I think the HM 102 Wattmeter was the only Ham equipment kit I built. (It was cheaper to buy the DX-60,  HG-10, etc used and already built.)  I built a Layfayette Explore Air as my first SW receiver.

[KA8WTK]

While we're at it, what was the last Heathkit you built?

Mine was a HD-1422 noise bridge. Still have it and it still works.

Bill KA8WTK

[w8khk]

While we're at it, what was the last Heathkit you built?

Mine was a 100 KC Crapstal Calibrator, about ten years ago.  But I still have two kits that have not yet been built, still in the box, with all the little brown bags of parts.  And all those NOS toobs:  An HW-101 and HP-23A.  A time capsule. 

[WA1GFZ]

My Parents bought me a GR64 for Christmas in 1964. My Dad's buddies thougt the regen RX I wanted to build wasn't worth the trouble so they talked him into the Heath.
I used it as a novice with a HB regen preselector and my second kit the Q multiplier. It was like driving Flash Gordon's space ship on 15 meters.
Then the SWR bridge
SB401
SB303

[k3sqp]

Stilll have my AR-3 receiver(?) that I built in 1957.  Worked 38 states
on 40 M in 4 months as a Novice. I must have been a great operator, cause
I did it without a receiver...
Frank
K3SQP

[nq5t]

While we're at it, what was the last Heathkit you built?

Bill KA8WTK

SB-102 and accoutrements.

[kc2ifr]

My first Heathkit was the GW-10  3 channel CB transceiver.

Bill

[WQ9E]

I still have the SB-220 I built in 1976 which was my first Heathkit.  I have an SB-644A that it is on my bench that I am about halfway through building.  It will probably be the last one I build.

Rodger WQ9E

[W1RKW]

Built the following (not necessarily in this order) and still  have all of them all still work.

AJ1214  Stereo Tuner
AA1214  Stereo Amp
IM-5218 VTVM
HW-101, HP23A First Ham Rig
HW-8
IM-2410 freq counter
HN-31 cantenna (just retired)
IG5282 audio generator - this was the last kit I built.

I think that's it.

[W1AEX]

A few weeks ago my wife and I were over at a neighbor's house for dinner and she said she had a piece of ham equipment that belonged to her dad that she would like for me to get rid of for her. It turned out to be a very nice HW-100 with the matching power supply. Although covered with a layer of dust, from the quick look I got, it still looked pretty nice. I haven't picked it up from her yet, but I figured I would give her 75 bucks for it. I found an interesting article in the archives of the AM Window (by Chris KD2XA) on a simple way to use it as a low powered AM rig. Looks like it might be fun to play around with.

Like most people here, my lifelong list of Heathkit gear is long and included stereo gear, marine band receivers, shortwave receivers, test equipment, and the usual array of ham transmitters and receivers. My old DX-100 still fires up nicely, but unfortunately, the VFO drive wheel is slipping so it's a bit awkward. At any rate, I wouldn't mind if all that stuff I sold off found its way back here!

[W3RSW]

I had a buddy at work in '68 or '69 who bought one of those rotary motor, sync'd neon bulb fish finder kits from Heath.  I built it at work for him right on the desk.

Back then anyone who knew about such exotic stuff was considered a genius and even the boss would come by and wonder about progress.   (or at least I thought that was his motive at the time.) 

We took it to Grafton Lake (WV) on a 'well survey'.  It worked but to our collective dissapointment it showed the lake only about 35 ft. deep.  We had visions of hundreds of feet and hundreds of fish.  Yeah, you guys are right. Those were the days.

The most reliable piece of gear I've even owned, bar none, is my Heath Cantenna, $10 and in daily use along with the HM102 wattmeter.  All my WM readings are relative...   

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Considering the building skills (or lack thereof) of some hams, building your first Heathkit can still be a reality today. It would likely require disassembly, acquiring new parts, and reassembly unless you were fortunate enough to find an unbuilt kit that you wanted. Even then, many of the components would still be shot and need replacing. Joe, WA2PJP is currently in the process of rebuilding the original 'Injun' station this way; Apache, Mohawk, Marauder, Warrior, etc.

Heath didn't have anything of interest to me in the 80s outside of the weather stations, but their old gear is really some nice stuff on a number of levels. Even with the Mohawk, the tuner section was pre-assembled and tuned, simply plug in and add knobs. So the plug in/'appliance' aspect has been with us for a while.

[K4TLJ]

I built a Heathkit GR-54 around 1966 or so. Also built a scope but don't remember the model.

Rebuilding a SB-401 was my incentive to take the amateur exams last year. I had restored lots of boat anchors but either sold them or put them on a shelf. I really had the itch to 'get on the air' after putting so much effort in the SB-401. I found a SB-301 and restored it to mate with the SB-401 and that was my first rig. I still do little on the air but at least when I finish a restoration I can use the radio  and it will not be a shelf queen.