Tomorrow's Heathkit

[M. Monninger]

Over the past 35 yrs I've built and used dozens of Heathkits...ham gear,
stereo gear, even a color TV. I really miss Heath and think it's a shame
that many new hams won't have the chance to build Heathkits. And I think
many of George's points are very valid.

However, I think this oft-heard argument about "custom I.C's" making
today's gear unusable is a little over done. Heath (and Collins and Drake
and Hallicrafters and Hammerlund and ...) used plenty of custom parts in
their gear, not only electronic parts but also mechanical bits & pieces.
Try to find a multi-wafer bandswitch for a Heath or Collins or Hammerlund
rig now. Try to find the plastic dial drum used on some of the Heath gear's
tuning mechanism. Or a power transformer. I'm sure that everyone can think
of lots of custom bits & pieces of Heath gear that is nearly impossible to
find now, much of which would render the gear unusable if (when?) it
breaks. Those custom (and non-custom) IC's replaced a lot of those custom
mechanical bits and in general make the radios more reliable. Properly
cared for, solid state devices will last almost forever but mechanical
systems will always wear out eventually. There are lots of good points
about the older gear, but lack of proprietary parts is not really a valid one.

There sure is something about the glow of tubes on a cold winter night, tho...

73 and best holiday wishes to all...

Mark    AA7TA



At 04:41 PM 12/23/98 -0500, George Gleim wrote:
> ...
>One of the many reasons that I think Hams can use 25+ Heathkit radios
>today is that: ...
>(2)   Heathkit used many 'off the rack' components and few 'custom'
>built items.
>  ...
>2020?  One good shot of static cap ZAP a custom Integrated Circuit
>rendering an entire radio useless.  And, I'd be winning to bet that
>those custom I.C's will be VERY difficult to find in 20+ years.
> ...

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