HEATHKITs

[jimmbo]

This may have been discussed before, but with trying to restart an old thread...

How many here were avid Heathkit builders? I was 12 yrs old in 1972 when I discovered Heathkits. I was in total awe of building a Stereo, as my dad was tone deaf and hated good music, there was no reason in his eyes to have one. In 75 I was able to purchase an AD 27a stereo system and assemble it. It went up in smoke as I refused to believe I had made a wiring error where I shorted the main power feed for the power amp transistors to ground(60 ohms or greater in the book, has to be a typo). 4 rectifier bridge diodes later and I was in business. Used it for about 7 yrs, but I dug it out of the cellar a couple of years ago and after pulling the turntable platter off to disolve the dried grease, the thing still works great.
I went on to build a couple more stereo recievers, an engine analyzer, several inductive timing lights, all of which are still still working. Unfortunately that was all before I was steadly employed and could buy all the kits I wanted. Once I was on firm financial ground and could buy kits Zenith had bought the company and pretty much killed the kit end of it. About a decade ago i managed to find a complete unassembled Ultrasonic Cleaner kit. I should blow the dust off the box and put it together. Hopefully the capacitors haven't dried out, well we shall see

 

[Redfred1]

I built the Weather Station Kit they had when I was around 12. My brother worked on TV's and helped me a lot. (Remember Mom got mad when we drilled a hole in the wall for the outside temp probe). When I got into electronics I built their guitar Amp for the project. They were fun to build; even better when they worked!

 

[GA_Boater]

Built a 27" color TV. No smoke and it worked for years. Only weighed about 300 pounds with the console. LOL

Part of it was building all the test equipment. Wonder where all that is? Only about 40 years ago.

 

[sam am I]

My first kit was a short wave radio receiver, climbing trees risking life and limb stringing up a decent antenna included. Building this stuff before I really understood how and why these things work either individually and/or as a whole I suppose only deepened my sickness......

Nothing I made back then survived my incessant need to tear it apart to figure out how it worked....Tunning and filter cap's weren't spared, tunning coils weren't spared, transistors/diodes weren't spared, nothing made it out alive!! If it was electronic, I tore it apart, ripped it open, unwound it and perhaps even burnt it.

Removing the knobs on the TV set when I wasn't even able to walk yet should have been one of many of my parents early warnings........

 

[jbuote]

Wow!!
Hadn't heard the name Heathkit in a LONG time..
A bit younger than some (born in 1972), but I remember building some with my father as a kid...

He had a TON of them.. Mostly my memories of Heathkit have to do with building with dad, but hey..
At least I remember, right? LOL

 

[poconojoe]

Yep, those were great. Brings back other memories too. I remember having sort of a multiple project device. It was a board similar to a board game. It had springs sticking up out of it where you could temporarily attach components or wires. If you followed the instructions, you could build all sorts of projects using the wires and components that came with it. All just temporary, no soldering or PC board.
And what about those chemistry sets!!! Those were the best!
All these "toys" we're so educational too.
Remember Vacuform? incredible Edibles?

 

[jimmbo]

I too had one of those 65 in 1 electronic kits boards. 3 transistors, various resistors and capacitors, solar cell, potentiometer, speaker, CDS sensor, relay, and a few others. Still have it actually, Realistic, the Radio Shaft brand

 

[bigdee]

Yup. AR-3 shortwave receiver, DX-35 transmitter, QF-1 "Q" multiplier. Also various test equipment. High quality kits and fun to build. I also built some kits from Allied Radio including a CB transceiver which was also good quality.

 

[poconojoe]

I too had one of those 65 in 1 electronic kits boards. 3 transistors, various resistors and capacitors, solar cell, potentiometer, speaker, CDS sensor, relay, and a few others. Still have it actually, Realistic, the Radio Shaft brand

Thanks for that description! I google 65 in one electronic kit and surprisingly there's plenty of kits out there today.
Another cool thing we did as teens was model rockets. It was great to build them and then launch them over and over.
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[bigdee]

Another cool thing we did as teens was model rockets. It was great to build them and then launch them over and over.
​​​​

I had to cut down a 40 foot tall pine tree to retrieve one!

 

[bassman284]

My first kit was a short wave radio receiver, climbing trees risking life and limb stringing up a decent antenna included. Building this stuff before I really understood how and why these things work either individually and/or as a whole I suppose only deepened my sickness......

Nothing I made back then survived my incessant need to tear it apart to figure out how it worked....Tunning and filter cap's weren't spared, tunning coils weren't spared, transistors/diodes weren't spared, nothing made it out alive!! If it was electronic, I tore it apart, ripped it open, unwound it and perhaps even burnt it.

Removing the knobs on the TV set when I wasn't even able to walk yet should have been one of many of my parents early warnings........

Ha! Made me think of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx6HojLBsnw

 

[sam am I]

ha! Made me think of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx6hojlbsnw

oh my

 

[82rude]

Never understood why you need a lisc to be a hammy.I this day and age of social media being world wide and instant why?

 

[JASinIL2006]

Never understood why you need a lisc to be a hammy.I this day and age of social media being world wide and instant why?

I always thought it was a because, if you opened it up too much, you'd have bozos straying all over the frequencies possibly interfering with other uses of the airwaves.

My grandpa was a serious ham operator and he thought it was the beginning of the decline of Western civilization when they opened up CB radio bands to any yahoo with a transceiver.

 

[bruceb58]

I was 10 years old when I built my heathkit. Was a metal detector. I learned to solder early on!

 

[dwco5051]

I was 10 years old when I built my heathkit. Was a metal detector. I learned to solder early on!

I still have one up in the garage attic. Worked great for a couple of years until I tried to submerse the coil under water to look for things in a creek bottom. Only difference was I was around 35 at the time. I think next time I am up there I will take it down and see if it dried out. After forty some years maybe it will work again.

 

[jimmbo]

I found an old transparency(1976) of my Heathkit AD-27a

 

[sam am I]

Fast Forward..............Awesome to see this and be essentially watching ourselves back from were we began but, from our computers today!!

CRAZY to think how far we've come in such a relatively short time!!

 

[dingbat]

The owner of our company has always told the story of how as a young engineer fresh out of school (in UK) almost ended up designing Heathkits for a living.

At the time Heathkit was part of Daystrom and shared a building. Heathkit on one side of the wall, industrial x-ray based thickness gauges on the other. He thought the gauging business was more interesting and went that way.

 

[bigdee]

As a kid I enjoyed building Heathkits.....I'm glad I grew up in an era of no Xboxes or computers!