Good for you, amptramp, an insightful post. My questions exactly.
An open question about "level of understanding" since in days of yore we didn't get into molecules even if we did wonder about FM demodulation strategies... you need to stop somewhere when drilling down for understanding and maybe the level today of "board replacement" as maintainers say, is relatively as deep for a computer.
I have shelves full of Heath test gear. Still works. Drove through Benton Harbor a few weeks ago purely out of homage.
(Read a history yesterday that omitted Schlumberger era. I wonder why.)
Ben
I only had the time to build a few Heathkits & then college took over my time. Then when I did have the time, they had stopped selling them.Hi River,
Just was looking around the site and found this thread,LOL.
I built just about all the heath kits and if I didn't buy them I made a few bucks getting them to work for others,I still have a curve tracer ,the big one thats still running strong,I have attached a connector for a meter to match fets and watch the curves on the scope,
Nice to hear they are getting back in the kits,They used to have some pretty cool stuff,maybe we can get them to make kits to learn to build some high end test equipment and audio stuff ,Their tv's were ahead of time ,I had one of the first color sets it was HEAVY,lol
send some rain over this way it's hot,lol.
NS
I built my kits (and many Radio Shack kits) in the late 70s and 80s - just plain ol' transistors.
I guess I'm going to sound like an old fart (I'm only 47) but honestly, what DO teenagers do these days for hobbies? They can't all be texting and playing video games all day......can they?
I understand what you mean, but not every electronic device requires a microprocessor.
Sorry, didn't mean to sound negative. Just wondering if in fact Heathkit is on the rebound.
Now if Dynakit would come back.
Bump!
Heathkit is allegedly, supposedly, coming back AGAIN! I was talking to another amateur radio operator the other day who mentioned it, and indeed, there's a teaser on the site:
Heathkit
the only two links there are FAQ and Privacy Policy, but they lead to ... Here's a news story from a month ago:
Is Heathkit back? | EDN
It links to a survey on that Heathkit site:
Heathkit Customer Survey - Spring 2013 ::
The survey is HUGE, and the last part is heavily weighted toward amateur radio, but there's plenty of to list "the best heathkit model" and such.
Heathkit is allegedly, supposedly, coming back AGAIN! I was talking to another amateur radio operator the other day who mentioned it, and indeed, there's a teaser on the site:
Heathkit
the only two links there are FAQ and Privacy Policy, but they lead to ... Here's a news story from a month ago:
Is Heathkit back? | EDN
It links to a survey on that Heathkit site:
Heathkit Customer Survey - Spring 2013 ::
The survey is HUGE, and the last part is heavily weighted toward amateur radio, but there's plenty of to list "the best heathkit model" and such.
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Gimme a break. Don't all DIYers want to pay MORE for the privilege of DIY?
Obvious truisms aside, several major good reasons to build: educational, opportunities now or later to modify, up-close-and-personal with our possessions, etc.
So the question really is: of those reasons that applied to tube-age kit building, just how much is relevant to a kit today? I valued learning about biasing tubes. What are the comparable lessons in soldering up sockets to take contemporary black-box op-amp chips or power-supply-on-a-chip?
I'm wondering if New-Heath has thought about the buying proposition?
Ben
Obvious truisms aside, several major good reasons to build: educational, opportunities now or later to modify, up-close-and-personal with our possessions, etc.
So the question really is: of those reasons that applied to tube-age kit building, just how much is relevant to a kit today? I valued learning about biasing tubes. What are the comparable lessons in soldering up sockets to take contemporary black-box op-amp chips or power-supply-on-a-chip?
I'm wondering if New-Heath has thought about the buying proposition?
Ben
Member
Joined 2009
Paid Member
The fun of DIY (or a kit) is building it - you want all the little parts separated and lots of parts to have to assemble. There's no fun buying a module off of eBay with parts that may or may not be fake and just connecting the power supply to it.
The advantage of a kit is not having to do the chasis work and ending up with a really neat looking piece of gear. I love designing and building amps, and I wouldn't be shy of the chasis work if I had a great workshop - but I don't and I don't want to invest in so many tools etc.
I think I might just be a potential Heathkit customer one day in the future - so long as they are quality designs and quality parts. And of course, something with a more interesting appearance and functionality than what I can buy at the local store.
The advantage of a kit is not having to do the chasis work and ending up with a really neat looking piece of gear. I love designing and building amps, and I wouldn't be shy of the chasis work if I had a great workshop - but I don't and I don't want to invest in so many tools etc.
I think I might just be a potential Heathkit customer one day in the future - so long as they are quality designs and quality parts. And of course, something with a more interesting appearance and functionality than what I can buy at the local store.
It's obvious from the survey questions that the people behind Heathkit are thinking of these things. It's hard to say if they will or can succeed, but there's a danger that they'll get lots of "Yeah I'd love to buy and build more new Heathkits" responses from people who then don't follow through.
As many or most posters here know, there's a remarkable hacker/maker/DIY movement that's been growing over the past decade with hackerspaces, makerspaces, TechShops (chain of commercial makerspaces), and events such as Maker Faires and Mini Maker Faires put on by the people at Make Magazine (published by computer book publisher O’Reilly). Look at Make Magazine on a newsstand (such as the large ones at Fry's Electronics) - it's a bit more expensive than other magazines, but it has been around a few years now.
A new Heath Company could possibly be a part of this phenomenon.
As many or most posters here know, there's a remarkable hacker/maker/DIY movement that's been growing over the past decade with hackerspaces, makerspaces, TechShops (chain of commercial makerspaces), and events such as Maker Faires and Mini Maker Faires put on by the people at Make Magazine (published by computer book publisher O’Reilly). Look at Make Magazine on a newsstand (such as the large ones at Fry's Electronics) - it's a bit more expensive than other magazines, but it has been around a few years now.
A new Heath Company could possibly be a part of this phenomenon.
Sadly, any fool with a keyboard can create a "survey." Professionals, ahem, ahem, query respondents the right way and interpret responses properly (hint: ever-popular focus groups are almost never the right way).
Good methods inform the client about what to do by providing the client with what might be called "actionable" data, not just vague attitudes towards their enterprise.
Ben
I built eighteen or so kits in the 1960's, most of them Heath (some Scott, Knight, Dyna). If Heath come out with kits I like I might be tempted by their ham radio stuff again (my souped up Sixer was stolen), but probably not interested in audio kits any more.
Looking around I see three Heathkits within a few feet of where I'm sitting, and there's a Heath keyboard in the closet.
Looking around I see three Heathkits within a few feet of where I'm sitting, and there's a Heath keyboard in the closet.
Bumping this thread because ... well, I dunno, but the "latest news" is almost exactly a year ago when "the Heath Company people" had an AMA on Reddit, as mentioned on the website:
http://heathkit.com/
It seems much of the AMA is people complaining that Heath didn't answer many questions. Regardless, it appears there hasn't been a peep since then.
If it ain't dead, it sure does smell funny.
http://heathkit.com/
It seems much of the AMA is people complaining that Heath didn't answer many questions. Regardless, it appears there hasn't been a peep since then.
If it ain't dead, it sure does smell funny.
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