How many of you built Heathkits?

[Dan Reardon]

I built a Heathkit SW radio around 1959 I was about 8 years old. That thing always seemed to overheat a particular resistor but it was such an easy fix. I remember cutting shipping carton to line parts up in the corrugation. Those were the days.

 

[Wildcat]

I remember cutting shipping carton to line parts up in the corrugation. Those were the days.

Heh, my grandfather did the same thing! He made a whole "workstation" for his projects that way, so he could pick it up in one armful and move it aside so they could have dinner. (He did the work on the kitchen table, since the lighting was brighter and the seat more comfortable, vs. doing it in the basement at his workbench.)

 

[Dirk Willims]

My Cub Scout troop troop 29 each built a heathkit radio like 300 years ago. Was for a merit badge. Which I do not recall. Haven't seen that radio in fifty years. I do own some pretty cool heathkit equipment, I've purchased over the past few years. Don't know it they were home built, or factory built.

My back bedroom system is a heathkit receiver, pushing Vandersteen c2's. Sounds decent,

Dirk

 

[c.coyle]

My old man taught me how to solder on a little Heathkit SW receiver, maybe '68 or '69. Can't remember the model. When it was finshed, we threw a hunk of wire out the second floor window and I heard "Hier ist die Deutsche Welle." I thought that was magic. I still think it's magic.

 

[maxhifi]

I got a catalog right before they quit making them.. just missed the boat.

 

[avionic]

Built these back in the early 70's. I was in high school. My father bought the kits for his moonlighting repair of CB, SSB and Amateur radio. I built the kits.
This was the first equipment that I learned how to use. Dad taught me how to solder, use the test equipment and T-shoot and repair two-way radio. He was a field radio repair instructor at Fort Gordon in Georgia. ie Korean war timeframe.

 

[Pio1980]

Iirc, an allband portable comms receiver, transistor tester, and ultrasonic bath.

 

[simplynuts]

Heathkits, Dynaco, Eico and even a Grommes way back when. I built kits for friends in college for extra money - quick way to pick up $25. I could build a Stereo 70 in one evening; PAS3 took a little longer. My old Weller soldering gun got quite a workout.

still have the weller soldering iron (still works) that came free with one of my heathkit test equipment order. They make an upgrade of it for $45.

 

[simplynuts]

Built quite few heathkit test instruments which I still have and built a dynaco pat4 and scratch built the universal tiger amp from popular electronics. Anyone remember southwest technical for parts and kits?

 

[Mystic]

My younger brother and I, under the watchful eye of an older cousin, built a few pieces, including a shortwave radio kit as cited by @avionic, of Heathkit gear in the '60s.

 

[hjames]

Still got my latest Heathkit gear proudly in use in our living room! Slightly modified!

 

[OBMG74]

Dating myself here...
As a kid, I mowed lawns all summer for 2 bucks per lawn, 25 cents extra for clipping with those awful hand clippers. (yea, I know, uphill both ways...)
Didn't spend a dime all summer, while dog-earing my Heathkit and Allied catalogs, drooling over kits that I could afford.
At the end of summer, I would spend my hard-earned cash on a Heathkit or Knightkit, and then wait with anticipation for the kit to show up.
Seems like delivery back then was 4-6 weeks...an eternity for a kid. Spent all day in school hoping that there would be a box waiting for me upon my arrival at home.

From best memory I bought and assembled:
Knight-kit: Tube CB radio, Tube Shortwave Receiver, Mono tube audio amp(wish I still had that but why keep that old thing when you could go solid-state?!!!)
Heathkit: Tube Oscilloscope, Solid-state guitar amp with twin 12" Speakers

Still have the shortwave receiver.
Good memories for sure and a lot of lessons learned: The value of saving, patience, following instructions, and soldering skills. And sometimes trouble-shooting....
Jim

 

[Bill Haywood]

I am from the older generation now and was just curious of how many AK menbers on this forum built Heathkits?
Kit building was one way of obtaining stereo gear or Ham radio gear, test equipment, and so on.

Built a Dynaco Pat-4, Dyna St-150 and a Dyna Equilizer my first stereo. Loved every minute when building them. Still got them.

 

[Bill Haywood]

Dynaco must have sold thousands and thousands because Ebay is full of them.

 

[Aristophanes]

built AR-14 receiver. lots of guys in the service built them. i wound up fixing them.

 

[70's Rockfan]

I grew up 3 miles from the Heathkit factory in St. Joseph Michigan.
when I was around 12 years old I met a man who worked there and lived
right up the street from me. he taught me how to solder and would bring kits
home for me to build. My first radio control system was a Heathkit single channel
that I put in a Dumas SK Daddle boat with a Cox .09 engine. it sure was fun.
the last project we did together was a tv. I learned a lot from him.
he moved away after the factory closed. the one thing I remember most
about his shop was all the peanut butter jars full of transistors, resistors , capacitors
and many other parts. I ask him one day , where did you get all them parts.
he said anything that falls on the floor in the factory gets thrown away so the
employees can take what ever they want. I think he sort of adopted me
because he didn't have a son. we kept in touch until he passed away about a year ago.

 

[audiohiffle]

I am from the older generation now and was just curious of how many AK menbers on this forum built Heathkits?
Kit building was one way of obtaining stereo gear or Ham radio gear, test equipment, and so on.

Yep, built a top of the line tuner (15?) about 1970. Excellent sensitivity, but I didn't like the sound.

 

[Bill Haywood]

Still got my latest Heathkit gear proudly in use in our living room! Slightly modified!

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Yea I still got my Dyna Pat4, DynaST-150 also my Dyna Eqillizer built in around 1974. They still work and a treasure them.

 

[Dwayne Heath]

My last name is Heath....

 

[oldgearhog]

Yeah me too but only a couple. My dad built many in the 50s and 60s. He also took the Bell and Howell course and built a TV and a scope (which I stl use) and he let me b uild the multimeter. I spent hours drooling over the catalog and it launched my career an electrical engineer.

My first build was an AA-10 (9 watts/Chan) Good memories!