EE Times article online

[Jack Crenshaw]

Ed Kotkiewicz wrote:

> Jack Crenshaw wrote:
>
> > Brian Wood wrote:
> >
> > > I found that EE TImes article online that someone mentioned a while back.
> > > The URL is http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?EET20001002S0155
> > >
> > > It pretty much lays out the whole sordid tale of acquisition and betrayal.
> > > Hmmm...sounds like a good movie theme...
> >
> > Brian, I'm not sure I understand what you mean.  Who do you think betrayed whom?
>
> EK> Jack, I think Brian has over symplified a process of business, profit and loss, and
> progress. What happened at Heath was a sign of the future.  Ham's frequently lament the [loss]
> of the "good old days" and bask in the warm glow of BA's.  The article is written in a cold,
> abrubt manner without any mention of the good times.  The wife and I lived in BH during the
> move to zenith and she saw, firsthand, the direction Zenith was going.  It is interesting to
> note that Zenith TV's during that time frame were the last of the "US made" and hard wired TV's
> left on the market.  The move to computers had already started before they took over.

Oh, way before.  I think the move to Zenith was in 1980, was it not?  The computer line was
started in 1977, I think.  Maybe sooner. If there's a tale of betrayal to be told, it should be
the one about how the original product line manager for computers, good old Lou What's-His-Name
(can't recall it for the life of me; can someone else help?) got neatly squeezed out of the
picture.  Lou landed in the education line, and was the one who introduced all those analog and
digital trainers.  Ironically, that line is all that's _LEFT_ of Heathkit! <g>.

> If you read Terry Purdue or Chuck Penson's books, much of what is said is fact.  Here again,
> the author merely wrote a cold version of these facts.

Didn't read them.  Didn't even know that there _BE_ such books.  Where can I find them?

> > (2) I could have sworn the first electronic Heathkit was a 3" scope, not a 5".  The price of
> $39.95 also sounds high.
>
> EK> Nope, this is well documented

Ok; well, if you say so.  I got involved in 1954, with the W-5M and WA-P2.  Later, in 1956,
bought a 5" scope.  At that time, Heath also had a 3" scope which was selling like hotcakes.
Seems to me it was like $19.95, something ridiculous like that.  FWIW, I was in college, at
Auburn U., at the time.  The Physics, EE, and Psych depts, and probably lots of others, were
literally awash in Heathkits.  We (physics) used them in our labs, and I think just about every
other department, in every other university, did the same.  Also FWIW, I got elected to build the
analog computer kit <sigh>.

> > (4) Building a Heathkit in 1991 (or 1975, for that matter) was not "almost as costly  > as
> buying a manufactured instrument."  It was _MORE_ costly.

> EK> Ta-da!!!!  You hit the nail on the head.
>
> EK> Chuck mentions that problems REALLY started in the 1960's.  Practical people will agree.
> The computer era and Zenith's lack of interest merely was the icing on the cake.  It was like
> the last nail in the coffin.  Look at one very simple anology of today.  How many hobby shops
> do you know of where you live?  I have lived outside of St. Louis for 24 years and have watched
> 8 of them close and only one remains open and it is a 100 mile round trip for me!  I have also
> watched my favorite 'tron shops close up by the droves.  Its a simple way of the times.  It
> doesn't mean we have to like it, just that is the way it has gone........

I think we've had this discussion before, here on the list.  Someone asked if it were possible to
start up a new Heathkit-like company.  The general consensus was no (despite the fact that
several companies are currently offering audio amp kits, with apparent success).  It's certainly
true that when you can buy a Pentium III motherboard for peanuts, and/or a glue chip that lets
you put the whole computer on a 3x5" card, there's not much incentive to build a kit.  People
build kits because (a) they hope to learn something, (b) they want to be able to say, "I made
that myself," AND/OR the kit provides something one can't get today in a manufactured product.
IOW, the fringe market.  I always felt that Heath should have been aiming at that fringe market
during the 70's.

Consider:  During the 70's, the Solid-State revolution was already thoroughly upon us, and you
could buy a Pioneer audio amp at any Sears or Penney's store, complete with every bell and
whistle known to man, little-bitty graphic equalizers using slide pots that weren't even
_AVAILABLE_ in the U.S., etc., etc.  No _WAY_ Heath could compete with that.

Or, you could buy a very high-end, "Straight-wire-with-gain," audiophile amp at an outrageously
inflated price.  Not nearly the volume in that market, but a definite niche business.  I always
thought that Heath should have been gunning for that market.  Instead, they tried to out-knob the
Japanese, which was IMO a strategy doomed to fail.

Jack

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