Some time back there were rumors and a website regarding bringing back Heathkit or similar. As I recall it even asked which kits from heathkit were the most popular or maybe it was which ones would be popular now.
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Still unpacking moving boxes, I just unearthed my Heathkit "Solid State Grid Dip Meter" ;-) ...Jim Thompson
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| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Likely it failed the same way the comeback of Popular Electronics failed.
Which comeback?
The one where the remains of the old company suddenly decided they could go back into the kit business (they had just kept going with the educational stuff), and so they were starting with a few kits like a backup warning system or something similarly mundane? That failed, if they actually got as far as selling kits, they had only a few, none of them interesting, and so they went bankrupt, the final act of the long existing company.
Then some anonymous individual or individuals bought up the rights to the name or something, and made a big splash declaring they would resurrect Heathkit and be just like in the old days. But they were hazy about the plans, or who was invovled. I think it was late 2013, they had a Q&A open to the public, and lots was said, but little details. And that's pretty much where it left off. They are claiming they are working behind the scenes, but it doesn't look hopeful.
The problem is, the name isn't so important, while what they issue is. And Heathkit got out of the kit business when the desired products got too complicated (and expensive) to be made as kits. Hobbyists see it as a hobbyist place, but the company was much wider, selling that fish finder or electronic organ kit to Joe Average, who could get the end results cheaper by soldering things together, and the manuals were intended for that portion of the public, the ones who knew nothing but could follow the manual. Once electronics got cheap, that larger audience fell away. Once electronics got complicated, there was no easy way to duplicate them as kits without the kits costing more than a manufactured product. YOu can get laser printers and DVD players for about fifty dollars, shortwave receivers that could only be dreamed about forty years ago for a hundred dollars. Joe Average isn't going to spend the time putting together the kit, even if Heathkit could figure out a way for the end user to actually have much to put together. So it leaves the hobbyists, who are a small percentage of the population, despite the "Maker Hype". They probably want to put together those old tube kits (they were easier to hand assemble, indeed when transistors came along, that's when Heathkit started to not be cost effective compared to finished products), which would be fun to put together, but lack all the modern stuff that people actually want to use.
I gather there are lots of kits available now, but they are a different thing, and not aimed at the general population. That's the competition that Heathkit would have to face, and all they have is an old name.
No, there has yet to be any finite word on the second demise, but the longer it is since the last announcement, the more likely it is failing.
(Some years back, someone got hyped up for trying to restart Popular Electronics. He claimed to have got the rights to the name, yet the name isn't all that important, the contents is. He couldnt' even get the history right, for him it started in January 1975 when the Altair hit the cover, when that was really the start of the demise of the magazine, the prime was mostly in the past. He didn't even know that Steve Jobs likely never went to the Homebrew COmputer Club (he was probably in India at that point, but besides he was never the technical mind that some mistake him for) or that Bill Gates was off at Harvard (when he wasn't in Seattle) so likely never attended the club either, though Swiftwater Bill did send out a letter to hobbyists (mainly the Homebrew Computer Club) about the illegal copying of Microsoft Basic. So the guy couldn't even get the hisotry right. He had some kickstarter program, it never reached its goal, and then it all faded away. The names of the past are never as important now as actual contents.)
Michael
Living in one of the most remote corners of India, I never had a chance to do more than drool over catalogs from Heathkit, Radio Shack, Maplin, etc. But I do remember using a Heathkit VOM with a JFET input some 45 years ago. Analog of course. That was when I was working at a mission hospital in South India that had strong ties with sponsors from the US, UK and Australia.
Has that changed (and I don't even know if you still live in India)?
I remember every so often, someone from India would write an article for one of the ham magazines, and it was interesting to see how they made do because of the hardships. That was forty and fifty years ago. They'd talk about really high import duty on "non necessary" items, so when a ham wanted to build something, they often relied on someone from the US sending parts as gifts. Or making do with what was available within India.
They'd write about relying on a library set up by the US embassy or some US foundation where the magazines were available.
On one hand, it was a hardship for those interested in electronics and radio, but making do has always been a part of the hobby, so it was good to see even when so many hams were turning to buying commercial equipment.
I was 11 years old in 1971 when I found the hobby magazines (and the catalogs advertised within). I could afford the fifty cents for the magazines, but I too drooled over most of the contents, too expensive for me at that age.
There was a period in the early seventies where a lot of ham equipment was cheap, it used tubes and was AM only, and nobody wanted it at that point. So I'd buy it cheap and play with it and then trade it off. It's in more recent times that that stuff has gotten expensive, people regretting that they got rid of it years ago, or like me, they dreamed of it after seeing the ads, but couldn't afford it.
Michael
What?? I was poring over old copies of PE in 1971.
Popular Electronics existed when I was a kid, and you know long ago that was :-D ...Jim Thompson
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| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Man, I miss those days. Real radios glow in the dark.
I thought that they were just figuring out how to smelt iron when you were a kid, Jim!
-- Tim Wescott Wescott Design Services http://www.wescottdesign.com
Close. I'm of the "grind-your-own valves" generation ;-)
25 days to 3/4 (Century that is ;-) ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
I mean the copies were already old in '71. That was the year I had my first chance to read *any* dedicated electronics magazine. And that was possible only because I'd started working in a hospital with good connections in the US. No way was it possible in my home state.
Oh yeah. I'd been meaning to ask if you're going to celebrate your birthday on Feb 28 or March 01 this year :-)
I celebrate from Feb 28-Aug 11, and my wife celebrates otherwise ;-) ...Jim Thompson
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| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Has the cushion foam in the carrying case turned to slime?
Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)
Not quite, but becoming sticky :-( ...Jim Thompson
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| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
A mild diversion-of-subject: Can anyone recommend a good "cleaner" for degraded foam? I have some of my father's camera cases that I'm about to toss because of this problem.
Frank McKenney
-- "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." -- Jimmy Dean
I miss that purple glow in the tubes, especially those 6L6 audio output tubes where the purple glow would dance to the music. Wasn't that where the phrase "Purple Haze" came from????
Tube equipment was much more fun (and easier) to work on than newer stuff....
It certainly didn't fry instantly... the glowing plate gave you ample warning to pull the plug ;-) ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
I've used 'Fast Orange' citrus oil based hand cleaner to remove it from steel panels. I've found the pumice free version at NAPA Auto Parts. I prefer it, because there is no abrasives in it.
-- Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
The 6L6 was a metal tube. The 6L6GC was glass.
-- Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
Limor sells some kits over here, but nothing as extensive as Heathkit of course.
Michael D.
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