[Elecraft] Today's HW-101 - Elecraft vs. Heath - What @#$%@#$

[Lee Buller]

Elecraft cannot and should not be compared to Heath.  Elecraft has technology far advanced from what Heath had to offer.  

The vaunted HW101 was for the most part crap!  Yes, I had one for years and it was the main rig.  When I saw the movie Frequency I about fell out of my seat laughing.  The unit in the movie did not have the cover on.  Mine didn't either because it always had to be tweaked  For the love of ham radio...the coils were all made out of paper...and any humidity or the lack there off....would through off the whole unit.  The paper would expand and contract and I had to fiddle with the tuning all the time.  The VFO was not that accurate but it was stable enough.  The SB series were better but not by much.

Heath got a start in electronic kits because they had a cheap reservoir of parts from WWII.  I loved my DX-40 but hated the darn VF-1.  Drift all over the place.  I rebuilt mine using better components (NPO Caps) and made sure I had a spare 6CL6 around.  I also had to regulate not only the screen (which is was anyway) but also the B+.  Don't even think of keying the VF-1...chirp, chirp, chirp.  The DX-40 was a work horse and a good transmitter.

Elecraft cannot even compared to the old Heath except to say they both were kit manufacturers.  I used a nice soldering station on the K2...I used by Dad's Weller soldering gun on the HW101. (The HW100 was even worse).  I also used the same soldering gun to put together dipole antenna.s

Technology has moved on...better parts...better designs...computers...etc.  You just cannot compare the two.  It is like comparing a little league team to the Yankees.

Heath had its place...and they tried to move into the market place to compete against Y, K, and I.  But, it just did not work...because of the quality issue.

Just my two cents....and have change too.

Lee - K0WA  :>)



In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply.  If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it.  If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense.  Is Common Sense divine?