Poll: Unbuilt Heathkits

[W3RSW]

I've built several Heaths over the years.  The first rig I ever used was a loaner DX-35.  Homebrewed several after that pretty much based on that circuit.

But getting my own virgin kit? Priceless - etched in memory only.  Yeah, the packing, the smell, the still wet (well, ok, still tacky) green paint of the HW-101 cover and panel. Guess the demand was so high in 1971 that they were shipping them right off the paint floor.  Then the blast/chore/thrill/scare of putting it together... the wiring harness, the crappy microphone, the power supply (tacky puddletone paint there too.)

I can imagine the thrill of a 30's ham receiving his Stancor Xmitter via Rail Express... the big box waiting at the freight terminal dock.
All these are memories. But you have to remember the stories, some actually horror stories of guys that actually bought a Heath TV.  I know a natural gas compressor station superintendent who bought and built their Leslie organ. He couldn't play a tune and tuned it up with an oscilloscope. I asked him if he knew that each higher octave had to be flat by about 1/8 note to get rid of 'bell ringing' harmonics... stuff piano tuners know. He didn't know what I meant but it sure sounded ok.  Guess Heath gave each note freq. in a table or something.  Well that's all hindsight. If I'd've built it in late '60's i would have known just enough to be dangerous and tuned up everything exactly twice each octave, etc. Would have sounded horrible.   And a TV?  Probably would've trashed it beyond hope. 

Worst Heathkit I ever bought was a computer monitor on sale at rottenchester.... real yellow on green screen.. that crapped out vert. sync.. So all the junk in it was bootstrapped and js'd together... the Hor. output generated other voltages just like tv's and stuff.  Never did get it working properly.
 
Well, I digress.  TMI fer sure.

It wasn't a Heath, but the absolutely best fun, wonder of wonder radio and all that, kit I ever built was the Knight Ocean Hopper. Yeah, you can't go back; the unbuilt kit thing is mainly the attempt to do so.

So my dime?  Build the damn things as they come out. Go get an Elekcraft right now before they're discontinued. Have fun in the continuum, the era in which it's intended.  Get on the air with it; practice up your code, blast the waves with amplitude modulation.
   Better yet, if you really want to reclaim your youth, recover the art et. al., then homebrew something, preferably with 7.5 amps and up filament current...  use 60 year old parts to brew up your "state of best art" rig.   Watch those 866's swing to the purple....

[w1guh]

I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet, but Ramsey Electronics is doing a creditable job selling kits.  I've started, but haven't finished yet (might someday) their deluxe FM Transmitter.  Back around 2000 I had an aplication for one, but it's since dried up, but, as far as I can tell from the components and manuals and construction they seem pretty good.  I did buy their "economy" FM transmitter on eBay and it worked good, too.  So there are kits being made out there.  BTW...their service seems good.  I busted one of the leads on a transistor through my own fault.  I called them up about it to buy a new one, but they just sent me one for free.  IMHO, they get good marks.

And re: Heathkits.

I built an HX-20 in '63.  Construction took 3 weeks, and then it was another week to get it working.  And when I finished it and had it on the air I really knew how slopbucket was generated and how slopbucket xmtrs in general worked.  So much so that when I took my Advanced exam in '68 it was easy.

(BTW...there was only one problem I detected in the design.  Their procedure for adjusting the carrier oscillator to the filter was not quite "on."  I kept getting reports that my mic was bassy....took me years to figure out that I had the carrier oscillator adjusted wrong.  Oh, well.....

I built two GR-169 TV's...both worked good and lasted forever.

But, again, those @#$%$@$#$ paper bags with random components in them.  There appeared to be no rhyme or reason as to what was in each bag.  The could've at least grouped the part logically (or, like Knight-Kit, sprang for plastic bags.)

I remember that when I was building it, I couldn't find the last 82 UUH epoxy dipped cap.  So I just went down to the local parts place and bought one, figuring that it was missing.  When I had unpacked the tube shields, for a good time I put two of them over a couple of tubes on the modulator I was using (why I had tube sockets for modulator tubes I don't remember)  So, during final assembly when I needed those shields, I pulled one off the modulator and the "missing" cap fell out of the shield.  Grrrrr.   

Sigh...nostalgia

[W1RKW]

I never thought I'd ever have the fortune to say this but I found two unbuilt Heathkits in all the junk I've collected over the years.

Since it was a rainy day I decided to go through some the junk I have boxed away and boxes I packed up before moving 4 years ago and never reopened.  I was looking for a movie my friends and I made when we were in our teens because one of my friends wanted a copy of it. To cut to the chase, I found the movie but I also stumbled across two unbuilt Heathkits someone gave me about 15 years ago that are still unbuilt.  They're not radio gear but two electronics trainers all with the parts and manuals in unsealed boxes.  Go figure.  Never would've thought my memory would go as bad as it has.

Also discovered I need to get rid of a lot of pure crap.

 

[K1JJ]

And re: Heathkits.
I built an HX-20 in '63.  Construction took 3 weeks, and then it was another week to get it working. 

 

I built their 100 watt solid state guitar amplifier (with reverb)  in '65.  I played the guitar in a soul band (The Motown Review).  It went together in about a week of nights. When I fired it up there was a pop-crack. I could hear my guitar coming through the guts faintly, but no audio out of the speaker. After finally giving up I sent it back to Griefkit. It came back 2 weeks later working. I somehow mounted the power transistors so that the micas shorted out to the chasis. It worked FB after that.

After two gigs, the drummer accidently knocked my guitar off its stand and broke the neck in half. That was the end of the Moo-town Review.

I later let a friend borrow the amp and it made the rounds to others until it disappeared for good.  Years later I  had friends signing my yearbook with comments like, "With your Heathkit amplifier, you can't go wrong!"

T

[Glenn NY4NC]

Hey Tom!... I didn't know you played guitar??

I remember that amp very well, I believe it had a direct coupled output where if the output transistors failed, you got the full DC rail right to the speakers  ...good bye speakers...

I built their 100 watt solid state guitar amplifier (with reverb)  in '65.  I played the guitar in a soul band (The Motown Review).  It went together in about a week of nights. When I fired it up there was a pop-crack. I could hear my guitar coming through the guts faintly, but no audio out of the speaker. After finally giving up I sent it back to Griefkit. It came back 2 weeks later working. I somehow mounted the power transistors so that the micas shorted out to the chasis. It worked FB after that.

After two gigs, the drummer accidently knocked my guitar off its stand and broke the neck in half. That was the end of the Moo-town Review.

I later let a friend borrow the amp and it made the rounds to others until it disappeared for good.  Years later I  had friends signing my yearbook with comments like, "With your Heathkit amplifier, you can't go wrong!"

T