Unbuilt Heath's

[Carl Hyde]

Brian your full of it. There are many kits made and
available today that are far better than anything
Heath made then. Look at Ten Tecs kits and especially
look at the Elecraft K2 which is one of the best
radios available kit or no kit. Heathkit provided a
means to get a radio by having no production line.
Therfore if you assembled it yourself they didn't have
to pay someone to do it for you. Don't get me wrong
Heath had many innovations and generally good
engineering but so did Allied and the other kit makers
of the time. Your mixing apples and oranges. Heath was
in business because most hams couldn't afford a
Collins or Drake Or Swan or Hallicrafters. Many Hams
also wanted the convenience of having all the parts
and instruction supplied to them rather than having to
go out and find a lot of parts to home brew a radio.
Sure their stuff was good but even in their day
Collind and Drake were far better. The Collind 75A-4
receiver 50 years later still outperforms 95% of the
receivers on the market today. The Drake R4C receiver
with the Sherwood mods is  as close to a laboratory
standard as you can get for less than $10,000. Heath
never built a receiver that even comes close. If you
don't believe it go to Sherwood Engineerings web site
and look at a laboratory comparison of all the major
receivers on the market then and now. Not many Heaths
listed. And the old saying still holds true "If you
can't Hear em you can't work em"

If you want to build a great radio today there are
many more kits available than there were in Heaths
day. From QRP on up we have many to choose from and
they are fun and perform well. So you can be
passionate about Heath but you can't compare Heath
radios of yesteryear to any kits available today. If
Heath were still selling kits today it would be a
different story. Just my three cents thanks for the
bandwidth.

--- Doug Huggard <dhuggard at CTS.COM> wrote:
> In article
> <008401bf1b6a$9662bd80$21b92e9c at Pbeijconrad>,
> Brian Conrad <beijconrad at GDINET.COM> wrote:
> >Common  Guys and Girls,
> >    So what how much it costs.  One simple reality
> - there are NO
> >electronic Kits any where near as good as the
> Heath's from the 70's and
> >80's.  And I love building them  -  and look for
> any lame excuse to
> >rationalize why.  it' a hobby I love  -  and I have
> alot of equipment I
> >can use.
> >
> >Brian J Conrad
>
> Brian,
>
> You may be right about the 70's and 80's but there
> are some absolutely
> wonderful ham kits available today. Having built
> *numerous* Heathkits
> I can say that there are kits available today that
> exceed Heathkit in
> construction (no wires to strip/solder) with
> documentation every bit
> as good.
>
> So, for those of you who like to build, take heart -
> the kits are out
> are out there.
>
>
> 73s,
>
> Doug - WB6AJX
>
> Sponsored by the City of Tempe
>
> Listserver Submissions:  heath at listserv.tempe.gov
> Listserver Subscription: listserv at listserv.tempe.gov
> - "subscribe heath 'name' 'call'"
> Listserver Unsubscribe: listserv at listserv.tempe.gov
> - -"signoff heath"
>


=====
Carl S.HYDE
W2CSH
cshyde at yahoo.com
Eagles May Soar, But Weasles Never Get Sucked Into Jet Engines!

Politics: From the Greek word Poli, meaning many and
the word tics, meaning blood sucking parasites.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com

Sponsored by the City of Tempe 

Listserver Submissions:  heath at listserv.tempe.gov
Listserver Subscription: listserv at listserv.tempe.gov - "subscribe heath 'name' 'call'"
Listserver Unsubscribe: listserv at listserv.tempe.gov - -"signoff heath"