Do You Recall Heathkit?

Hi
Heathkit kits were a wonderful way to learn about electronics and provided an economical way of obtaining good quality amateur radio equipment. Their place has now been taken by Elekraft for amateur radio transceivers, which are are equally as good as many of the commercially available pieces of equipment.
Jeff

Aaaah Heathkit, that brings back a few good memories. I put together a few of them also, and they had an electronics course ( correspondence ) still have the books for that one also. Certainly those were the days, nowadays it is not the ‘in thing’, just grab it of the shelf and when it stops working, chuck it in file 13 and get a new one…
greets from Sunny Saint Lucia (Caribbean)

HHmmm. I am sitting here looking at a catalog from them IDed as VEC-118. :-)) Dunno the year, but somewhere around 1986 or so. I have it in my piles of stuff to keep :-)() along with my 1987 Radio Shack catalog.

I actually had 2 Zenith machines and they were good machines. [May have one somewhere around here.]

Now somewhere (not in the pile ) is the original flyer catalog for the Hero 1 robot….

cheers

Fond memories. Just recently chucked my high voltage V-O-M (vacuum tube oriented), used in CRT/TV repair. I subsequently tried to graduate to Logic circuit/solid state microprocessor kits. (Learning was always my main objective with kit purchases.)

The latter kits were not up to Heath’s quality standards. Recall one such outfit, MOS Technology, with their constant rash of errata sheets, that eventually sapped my self-improvement bent.

Today’s barebones computer kits are great for savings and quality, but I think fall a little short re education.

Even at my advance age, I still like to learn and have as a next project “software programming in Linux”. Any “kit” suggestions? Object: Just to be able to think of an APP and be able to sit down and create it for a User’s use.

Oh, boy…Heathkit! I still have one unbuilt in the basement today. In fact, being an amateur radio operator, I’m somewhat of a Heathkit collector…there’s tons of their gear on my desk, some of which I even built myself. They weren’t the Cadillac, but they sure made good stuff for the money. It was lots of fun to do, too. And when I was taking electronics at Vo-Tech in high school, I also built the clock…and also their electronic doorbell (just never could get that one to sound right).
Ahhh….the joys of being a geek.

I built all kinds of stuff, The pre-amplifier kit (later replaced with a Harmon-Kardon unit), dual KT-66 amplifiers, two TV sets, one all tubes and the second was hybrid. Electronic voltmeter, stiil in use today. Auto gas analyzer, RGY-TV color signal generator.
My mother’s dog use to lay on top of the kt-66’s (which were mounted under the floor joists in the cellar).
The kit provided good equipment, that was usable and repairable by me. During the lifetime of the TV sets I replace the picture tubes twice! Last use of the hybrid TV was a game console for some local kids.
I thru out the kt-66’s when I moved out my mother’s house after she died in 1995. I am sorry that I did that, Now!

I definitely remeber Heathkit! I fact, I have the AM/FM radio my Father and I built together when I was 13 and it still works! Best thing is it’s 38 yrs old and it still works! It was one of the things I’ll always rember about growing up, the AM/FM kit wasn’t the only thing from Heathkit I built. It’s what got me hooked on electronics and electricity. It’s probably part of the reason I became an Electrician.

When I was young my father bought and assembled the family s first color tv from a heathkit. He did not buy the housing unit, but refitted an old record cabinet to hold it. When ever there was a problem he was able to fix it…the thing ran for a long time.

Heathkit was “Heathkit” from the late ’40s until the late ’80s, more or less, peaking in the ’60s. Many radio amateurs, and more than a few CBers, built HF(shortwave) transceivers from Heathkits, but the company was also strong in home audio, electronic test equipment, and instructional kits.

A lot of the stuff they sold was lower-priced starter stuff, but some of their higher-end models were quite ambitious and based on commercial or advanced amateur gear. At one point in the ’70s they offered an 8(?)-bit computer programmed by keypad input or paper tape, and an elementary robot, the “Hero I.”

By the ’80s, the kits themselves were more expensive than comparable commercial products, and the labor involved in stuffing, cutting leads, and soldering the many components could take alot of time.

All in all though, the availability of kits from Heath, as well as from Eico, pre-RadioShack Allied Radio(Knightkits), and others, probably gave a big boost to the country’s electronic knowledge, and to the electronics retail business.

Truncate my last name to the initial if its OK

I still have several Heathkit project I assembled in my youth! THey are still work..

Blast from the past….

My first computer was an H-8, hex display and keypad with a start at 4 whole Kilobytes of memory and a 1200 baud cassette tape for offline storage. I still remember paying 18.95 a chip, for a 4K by 1 bit (took 9 of them to make a 4Kbyte - one parity bit) expansion. I ended it 16K. But the fun. And hooked me life long on programming.

The first “big” purchases I made after I got my first job after college was a Heath Stereo Amplifier kit and an FM Tuner kit. That was about 38 years ago. I long ago replaced these with off the the self systems for my primary stereo system. But both components are on my workbench in my garage workshop and they still work. I listen to them often when I’m out there working. Heath did make quality components in those days. I would have loved to have built one of the Heath computers! It was always on my to-do list, but I never got around to it.

Yes, my dad built a console TV from Heathkit. He used to tell my little brother that he got him from Heathkit.

I have just one thing to say about Heathkit: AR-15.

If you do not know what I mean, then you were not there.
Sherm

Heath got me started in electronics, eventually building their remote control color tv and the electronic organ. I still have their GR-78 general coverage receiver to remind me of the good old days.

They were good if they were built right. I have an SB-101 sitting in my basement.

I’m from the vacuum tube era. Nick, a friend of mine, and I used to salvage discarded TVs and loot them for parts. We both took Advanced Physics at Speedway Highschool which was really electron theory disguised as applied electronics.

From TV parts I made a highvoltage DC powersupply that surprised even my teacher for it’s ability to maintain voltage under varying loads with only 0.2% ripple. How did I do it? My trusty HeathKit/Radioshack VOM.

Built that Kit when I was 16. Lost it, still in use (had to replace the leads now and then), 32 years later when my house burned down.

Did it have an effect on me? You Betcha! I aced the armed forces entrance exam in 1965 and went on to be an electronics technician in the Navy.

Today, I continue to use what I learned then.

Can’t get anything like those kits on a local basis any more and I think budding enthusists really miss out.

I first encounterd Heath when as a 16 yr old I build a stereo amp kit and was truly amazed at its performance (in 1951) I seem to think it as known as an S99. Many years later whilst on military service in the Maldive Islands we converted the popular DX100 transmitter kit to provide MW transmission for local radio. The transmitters we converted gave us nearly 7 years of faithful service before certain spares became difficult to obtain. I am now 65 years old and when you consider that some 49 years ago I build my first Heathkit and still think of it very fondly that surely is testament enough as to there quality and popularity at the time. It would certainly be of value to real hobbyists if Heathkits were revived as the knowlege gained from home construction cannot be gained by simply reading,hands on is brilliant.

There are still quite a few company making electronics kits. I have an entire presentation that I give to ham radio clubs on where to find kits and how to build them. For a copy of the slides I use for that presentation, go to http://www.kb6nu.com, and click on the link in the right-hand column.

While you’re there, type “kits” into the search box at the top of the page, and you’ll find lots of entries that talk about ham radio kits.

Yesiiiiirrrrreeeee, I had a GR-81; hey, I was only in high school and under 16. It was a regenerative with a sweep and a band spread set of interleaved semi-circled movable interleaved capacitors. It could do things even my borrowed Hammerlund rcvrs couldn’t. I teamed with a Globe Chief transmitter with a “cathode follower” modulator for audio work - which I never used; I was a “CW” geek - also a “Novice” (Kn7YTQ) the novice license limited me as to time, power restrictions and frequency availabilities.
Great times!! I wouldn’t use them now that we have the internet, but I saw their practical use in “Independence Day”, so it’s OK with me, … I mean - we must have practical things all around us, right?
I also had a really great amplifier, but it was built by my radio station junior engineer. It managed to control stereo separation from 0 - 100%! - - - all “tube-type”.

Yes I do remember Heath Kits I used to drool going through the catalog. There was this other comany called paiya not sure of the spelling. They sold a monophonic keyboard synth on a kit I built one Wish I still had it

I used to get Heathkit catalogs when I was a kid. I remember the seeing the computer when I was in 6th grade back in the 70’s. I never built anything unfortunately. Never had the money or the know how. Back then I was limited to doing simple repairs like resoldering broken wires using an iron from a woodburner kit. Same tool, different use.

I remember Heathkit from the ’50s. My Dad built quite a few things including a “hi-fi” when LP records first came out. I built a shortwave radio in 1960 and an oscilloscope in 1979 that still works quite well……learned a lot!

I built my first kit at age 12 and always regretted not having the money to buy more of them. The clock was the last kit I built. I still have it, but had to retire it from my nightstand last year after the alarm quit working. It still keeps time on my workbench at age 36. I still have the manual, so someday I’ll have to go through it and get it working again.

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Sure do.
I remember building a Heathkit 3 or 4 inch oscilloscope for my main Amateur radio rig, a Yaesu FT101e. It was terrific.

I haven’t been on air for a few years but I know where it is in my garage
de vk3ndo

My first exposure to Heathkit was sitting at the kitchen table on a stack of phone books, helping my Dad build a Ham radio transmitter kit by handing him the resistors that were called out by color in the instruction manual. He was color blind and could not see the color banding on the resistors. It was so exciting when we plugged it in and after some tweaking talked to people all around the world via Morse code. Over the years I also built a Crystal Radio, an AM Portable Radio, a Bass Guitar Amplifier and a Guitar Fuzz Box. I still have them all except the Guitar Amp and they still work. Man those were the days.

I wasn’t eeven aware they’d gone out of business. Why would anyone not remember them??

I enjoy these trips down memory lane . Yes I’ve been there and done that . . It has held my interest for 73 years , now instead of ham radio parts cluttering up the spare room it is computer stuff latest and greatest incurable disease that sucks the life out of your bank account but feeds your ego and mind . Yes blame it all on Heathkit .

Gnomie Peter wrote………

“You’re probably too young to remember the Heath Electronic Kits that were widely available.”

Peter,

I do hope that by all of the responses you realize what a naive statement you made :).

Us ‘Old Farts” do enjoy reading articles written by you “Young Bucks” on occasion.

Kidding aside, I still have my oscilloscope and several other pieces of Heathkit test equipment that I built over a quarter century ago. They still work and can still be used to troubleshoot antique radios (a hobby of mine).

Heathkit. In seventh grade I got the complete Electronics Experimenter course with the neat dual voltage power supply breadboard. I taught myself electronics and from a couple NavShips manuals inherited from a relative, taught myself troubleshooting theory. I’ve been using the knowledge gained thereby daily ever since. My only regret was that I didn’t get the Digital Electronics course, my parents hit a downturn in the economy and we couldn’t afford it.

It was with great sadness that I watched the end of an era with the passing of Heathkit. But then things change. If you think electronics experimentation is a dying art, get involved with robotics. It may not be tube radios and stereo kits, but knocking together a 3-Axis CNC system, a self balancing unicycle with inertial navigation systems only available to the military when I first got my Heathkit course, and fully autonomous UAV rc planes prove that electronics nuts are still making rosin smoke and attempting to not let the smoke out of the chips.

OMG! I LOVED building the Heathkits! I built a clock, an amplifier and FM tuner, an FM/AM receiver, and a couple of HAM radios.

Those were the days. As a kit, I waited with much anticipation of the NEXT Heathkit catalog to arrive! I would peruse it for hours, trying to decide which kit I could save enough money to buy and build.

‘Wish they still were in the kit business.