Goodbye Heathkit

[stampeder]

After trying to make a corporate comeback, Heathkit is apparently down for the count. I built several Heathkit projects when I was younger, including an oscilloscope when I was a teenager.

http://www.arrl.org/news/heathkit-ed...closes-up-shop

If you use our site's Search Tool with "Heathkit" as the query and select posts instead of threads you will see some fond recollections from a few of us Digital Home members.

Here's the Heathkit Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit

[TechieFreak]

I share your memories for the better times of our youth.

Between Heathkits and Radio Shack, a tinkerer didn't have to go far to make electronic projects.

Radio Shack (The Source) is nothing like what it used to be, with the wide assortment of switches, pots, speakers, lamps and boxes. (remember the Mach-1 speakers, or the Realistic SA-1000 amp?)

At least in Vancouver we still have RP Electronics and Active Electronics.

[JamesK]

I also built a few Heathkits over the years. Also, there used to be Lafayette Radio and Allied Radio. Both had thick catalogs full of audio & video gear, test equipment, parts and more. Allied was in Canada briefly (they were located in Barrie) before being bought by Radio Shack (Tandy). I still have a Heathkit "Cantenna" dummy load.

[interdit_450]

Wow good memories ... my first "home alarm" was a Heathkit. Sad to see them close up shop, thought they could have done something using Internet sales

And totally right about Radio Shack as well, it was always a sure stop at the mall back in the days when it was owned by Tandy.

Thank goodness Montreal still has places like Addisson, Abra and Access for the tinkerer

[HDTV101]

Heathkit had some great stuff back in the day... as a kid I built many of their kits and learned so much about electronics at the time. I loved their catalogs too... I didn't know they were trying to make a come back... I had thought they had died off long ago... I guess it wasn't meant to be..


If you go to their site http://www.heathkit.com/ and click on 'Store' you get this....

The connection has timed out
The server at www.heathkit.com is taking too long to respond.


Heathkit RIP

[tricky]

My first kit was built in the UK an FM tuner and that was when BBC first started broadcasting in stereo it wasn't long before Heathkit supplied their multiplex decoder.
My second kit was a tube stereo amplifier.

My third venture was a pair of Altec Lansing/ Heathkit AS101 speakers which are still going strong. I got these from their store in I think it was Cookesville .

When Altec Lansing quit the Hi-fidelity speaker business, now all we get are the mass produced mini computer speaker, A few of the employees bought some of the equipment fortunately, and still produce the top end equipment in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where I managed to purchase new voice coils on the tweeters to replace the worn out 40 year old coils.

http://www.greatplainsaudio.com/

[987654321]

I bought a Heathkit SW radio kit in 1976. It still works today.

[JamesK]

My first Heathkit was an HR-10B amateur radio receiver, which I built back in 1971. I no longer have it, as I traded it for some other gear.

[stampeder]

I remember how delighted I was when I saw that Heath-Zenith had opened up a storefront on Macleod Trail in Calgary in the early '80s, but on arrival I was crestfallen that it was purely for business computers and that any or all references to the Heathkit line were gone. The sales guy shrugged uncomfortably and said that there had been lots of people showing up expecting the same thing as I had.

[BOUVAL]

HEATHKIT VTVM was one of their best sellers.

I built one back then and I was using an isolation transformer to make sure I don't blow it up.

Remember how often we had to turn the ZERO ADJ. and the OHMS ADJ.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HOOwa7ZBo4...%25BC%25AD.jpg

R . I . P .

[s40]

I built a 17" tv in 1970, a 22" in the mid 70's, and the AR1500A stereo receiver in around '73. I am going to have to throw out the tv's when I move, but I think I will keep the receiver. I am using the AS104 speakers (from the stereo) as the base part of my surround sound and they still sound really good - I don't need a sub because they sound that good (the mid and high range don't sound good, so I bought some Paradigms to cover that range and wired them together).

[HTGuy2]

My first Kit was a 22" colour TV, which was Heathkits first solid state TV in 1970. I had ordered a tube model but while waiting for delivery they introduced the solid state line. So cancelled the original order and waited another month for delivery. Built numerous pieces after that and at one time I built demo pieces for the store they opened on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg.

Still have a digital clock, working perfectly after approx 40 years!!

[rick5127]

Years ago I used to repair radios and such. Every once in a while we would get in a Heathkit. We always called them Griefkits cause of all the bad soldering and stuff from the folks that built them.

Good days though... I remember Allied and the others mentioned here too. Use to spend lots of days ordering things from the catalogs.

[ScaryBob]

I built several Heathkits as well. They included an amateur receiver, RF oscillator (also usable as a low power transmitter) and stereo amplifier. I almost built an Heathkit Z-100 PC which were the kit form of Zenith PCs. They were a very early PC clone based on the S-100 bus (a competitor to the ISA bus used by IBM.) IIRC, Heathkit was purchased by Zenith in the early 1980s. They also sell a limited line of consumer products under the Heath-Zenith name.

[sailmaker]

HEATHKIT VTVM was one of their best sellers.

YES !!! We used one that I built from a kit in the R & D Labs at Westinghouse in Hamilton around 1955 or so. We also heard details about Kennedy assassination on a Heathkit AM/FM radio that I built.

Heathkit was on Dundas Street (#5 highway) in what is now Mississauga. They had a retail outlet there also.

As my brain goes into rewind I think Heathkit started out as a small airplane kit and I remember the name parasol or something similar.

Radio Shack used to be Tandy Leather out of Texas?

The Heathkit vacuum tube volt meter was a well used instrument in the days of b/w 14 and 17" tv's. Stop clearing the cobwebs already.