[Elecraft] Heathkit Returns!

[Wayne Burdick]

> I think the electronics industry's ubiquitous use of SMTs, LSI's,  
> GPA's etc. caused the decline in demand in manufacturing of the more  
> expensive and labor intensive items like tubes, variable caps,  
> resistors. etc.

The demand for leaded parts may be lower, but don't count them out. We  
can still purchase all of the parts for our "full" kits without any  
trouble. That's hundreds of different leaded parts from dozens of  
vendors. (Our full kits include the K1, K2, KX1, transverters, and  
nearly all of our mini-modules and accessories.)

Take through-hole ICs, for example: Digikey shows about 400 different  
8-pin DIP dual op-amps in stock from 17 different manufacturers. They  
stock over 700 types of DIP-package Microchip PIC parts. The SA612AN 8- 
pin DIP oscillator/mixer found in many ham designs is carried by at  
least half a dozen vendors, with thousands in stock.

"Interesting" I/O chips like the TI TPIC6595N 8-bit shift register/ 
peripheral driver are still widely available in DIP packages -- I  
counted 9 vendors for this part.

Or how about a leaded, 10-K, 1/4-watt, 5% resistor? Digikey has well  
over 2 million in stock from three manufacturers.

Finally, consider transistors. I found 21 stocking vendors for new  
2N2222's, and there must be tens of millions of them available  
surplus. Digikey alone stocks 10 different kinds of TO-92 JFETs.

Home brew with full-size parts lives on!

73,
Wayne
N6KR