[Elecraft] Heathkit

[MikeDoolin@aol.com]

Hi - as an ex "One of the Hams at Heath" and a builder of a couple of hundred of their kits during my employment with them, I have been 'lurking' on this great list for several months. 

While I was at Heath (68-74) the company routinely sold a hundred or more of each transceiver every week, with the SB-series being the most popular. Although I wasn't directly involved in the $$ end of the business - I was a copywriter in the Advertising department and wrote the Heathkit catalogs and ads - I do know that the ham lines were generally extremely popular and quite profitable for them. Although they had some pretty good competitors - Collins, Swan, Drake come to mind - no one could come close to Heath in breadth of line or overall sales volumes. Maybe that was because so much of their Engineering and management was hams.

I have never built an Elecraft but probably will someday. From the remarks on this reflector I would hazard a guess and say that the Elecraft folk have basically assumed the mantle of the venerated Heath - at least in the ham market - and are doing as good a job with current technology as Heath did those decades ago with the technology available at that time. It's no secret that offshore assembly, miniturization and personal time compression killed the Heathkit business. I am delighted to see Electraft bucking that trend and apparently staying financially healthy and growing a dedicated group of kit builders, just as Heath did all those years ago.

As someone on this list noted, there is nothing like the smell of melting solder (or words to that effect.) To say nothing of the feeling of accomplishment that comes from (successfully) building something yourself.

I look forward to building a KX1 or a K2 in the future. In the meantime, thanks for this great list. And keep it up Elecraft!

Mike Doolin
KC2TP; ex WB8CDU