[Heathkit] Ye gods and little fishes!

[Bwana Bob]

Yes, I miss the glory days of Heathkit. I grew up with Heathkits. I 
built stereos, amateur radio gear large and small (I still have my 
HW-100).  In 1970 my dad an I built a color TV and I still have my dad's 
old V-7A VTVM that he built in 1956. That's how I learned to 
troubleshoot electronics, something that I'm still pretty good at in my 
job today. An old high school pal of mine recently developed an 
oil-cooled power supply for his company. The inspiration was the  Heath 
Cantenna dummy load. A lot of us owe our careers to Heathkit.

Fortunately, though Heath is gone there are still some kits around, 
mostly QRP gear, but the Ten Tec kits are pretty decent. I built their 2 
mater transceiver and 1254 shortwave receiver, which is pretty nice for 
general listening.


				73,

				Bob WB2VUF

John Dilks K2TQN wrote:

> 
> Hi Ken and all,
> 
> I remember that the SB-101 (similar rig) was "much more" than one week's 
> salary when I bought my kit back in 1964 or 65(?).  Today the eBay sale 
> is only a little more, percentage wise, than back then.
> 
> I had the pleasure of building two SB-101's in my life.  I built mine.  
> Then a friend convinced himself that he couldn't build his after the kit 
> arrived.  He traded me a great receiver to build it for him.
> 
> I do miss kit building though, it was a major life event for me then.  
> First the anticipation of the arrival of the kit, then setting aside a 
> place to build it, then building it, and last - testing it and putting 
> it on the air.  When I built mine, I was at a company school in Columbus 
> Ohio (Western Electric).  When I finished it, I was on the evening shift 
> at the school (it was an 8-week school).  I threw a 40-meter dipole over 
> the roof of the cottage I stayed in, and the first QSO was with 
> Australia at about 4 AM.  Memorable!
> 
> 73, John Dilks, K2TQN
> 
> At 11:48 PM 7/9/2006, Kenneth G. Gordon wrote:
> 
>> Unbuilt Heathkit HW-101 kit: $1695.00. 25 bidders. Last bid went in
>> about 3 seconds before the auction ended, beating out the second
>> highest bidder by $25.00.
>>
>> I am amazed and appalled...
> 
> 
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