[Elecraft] Heathkit Returns!

[Lou Kolb]

One of the reasons I delight in the rock-solid stability of today's gear --  
the K3 in particular -- is that I had a Vf1 when I was a brand-new ham in 
69.  It was good enough on 80 and 40 but when I fired it up on 10 meters 
with the DX-40, it was WA3MIX AM & FM.  Lou
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Grant Youngman" <nq5t at tx.rr.com>
To: "Elecraft Reflector" <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2011 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Heathkit Returns!


> It's probably a little bit disingenuous to bash the late 50's Heathkit 
> products too hard.  Generally, the stuff was a good value, worked (some 
> better than others of course), and was certainly no worse than most other 
> comparable products of the time.  I had a friend who got a set of St. 
> James Grey gear as a 14th birthday present, but sadly, I was forced to 
> have my fun with the "awful" Heathkit stuff.  And I did have fun, thank 
> you ..
>
> I wonder how many thousands of VF-1s were sold?  Judging by their ready 
> availability still, I'd hazard it was the most common VFO of the era. 
> Most of us who built/used one managed not to attract the attention of OOs 
> or the FCC as a result :-)
>
> Grant/NQ5T
>
> On Sep 8, 2011, at 7:14 PM, Phillip Shepard wrote:
>
>> I will second that.  My Novice receiver was an HR-10B that I
>> built; and that was OK, but not great.  Memories ...
>>
>>
>>> In the 1950s, the Heathkit AT-1 and AR-3 were pure junk. Yes, the prices
>>> were low, but the design quality was awful. The DX-20, DX-35 and DX-40
>>> were just okay but the VF-1 was trash. The DX-100 and DX-100B were okay 
>>> if
>>> you were "rock bound," but if you used the VFO - it was a VF-1 - and it
>>> was terrible on CW and drifty on AM.
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