heathkit

[Ray Friess]

I got my first license (Novice) back in the late 60s.  Heath was the
poor man's Collins and I drooled over the ads and dreamed of the day
I could have a Heath.  Heath was and is still great gear, and I have
lots of it still in my shack and always will.
     I second the sentiments of the writer below.  Most new hams
seem to be trashing the capabilities and reputation of a brand name
they know little or nothing about.
     I've found that theres very few of us left today that remember
the glow of a filament, or the excitement of trying to load some piece
of wire, a window screen, a set of bed springs, or whatever else came
into our imaginations.  THAT we could do with tubes and a pi network..
you cant do that with most gear nowdays.
     AND, I might remind some of you that during DESERT STORM, the
military had to put away the solid state stuff and bring out the old
TUBE Collins gear in order to communicate because of noise and other
problems caused by all the sand storms.
     DONT KNOCK WHAT YOU HAVENT EVER TRIED...
my 4 cents worth..
 Ray  wa7itz

PHILLIPS FAMILY wrote:
>
>           Gentlemen and the rest of you,
>                      Most of you so called hams have no idea what the
> hobby is all about. Most are no more than appliance operators, you buy
> it, and manage some how plug it in, and all of a sudden you know
> everything, don't you know heathkit was one of the best buys ever. If
> your heathkit was unstable or unreliable, it's more than likely the
> fault of the builder as much as anyone's. Over the years i have repaired
> ham gear for many, many so called hams, i have found resistors with
> leads two inches long when one half inch would have been long enough,
> and the same for caps and other components. When this happens i'm not
> surprised they are unstable. In my shack i have icom, kenwood and other
> popular makes of gear, my favorites and the ones i use the most are an
> SB 303 and an SB 401, and i can talk to anyone i can hear. I got my ham
> and first class radiotelephone tickets in the 60's, when most hams built
> everything in there shacks except the receivers, that's what the hobby
> is all  about, and providing a public service for the general public. I
> find it very hard to believe people will pay thousands of dollars for a
> piece of  equipment that will not out perform  my 25 years plus
> heathkit. I built these two pieces of equipment and many others, i have
> used them for many years, maintained them, they have become old friends,
> how can anyone feel like that about something you just took out of a
> box, sat it on the table, and turned it on, there's no pride in that.
> Get some junk parts, an old handbook from the 60's and build something,
> after you do that let me know if you feel any different about the hobby.
> I'm sure i will offend someone with this, but that has never been
> something a worry about.  I have been a ham and a broadcast engineer,
> and station owner for something like 38 years, i'm not very sensitive so
> if you take offensive to this let me know, i'm sure i will survive, and
> so will you.
>                                                                 Phil
> K8YNG

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