unscientific poll and unbuilt kits

[R.A. (Army) Curtis]

Okay, time for my 2 cents worth ;o)

I have built well over 100 Heathkits over the years, starting in the early 50's. I greatly enjoyed the building of almost every one of them. They have included Hi-Fi gear, a color television set, test equipment, ham radio gear, and over 20 of the H-89 computers. I feel they taught me a lot about electronics, Amateur Radio, troubleshooting, and computers, that I likely could not have learned any other way. It made up my mind to get a BSEE degree, and later to become a Registered Professional Engineer. I still have a shop full of Heath test equipment and ham gear and use them regularly.

Can Brian overcome the advances of technology in trying to bring a Heathkit type of company back into the marketplace? It ain't gonna be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. I for one would love to try and build a substantial kit using surface mount components. And I'd love to turn my "optional" heatgun on it, and watch the solder reflow right before my very eyes ;o)

Manuals on CD are a great idea. I have purchased a number of software items that do their users manuals that way, and it works fine. It lowers the cost... I'm in favor of it ;o)

Are there enough people out there who are willing to pay the price to purchase a top quality kit? Big question mark. There are an incredible number of people out there today with an unbelievable amount of discretionary income, who regularly spend large sums of money on some very strange purchases. Will they spend it on a new line of kits?

I think Brian has a most intriguing idea here, and I certainly wish him the very best of luck if he decides to pursue it. By all means send me your first catalog.. I will very likely buy something from it. Can you recapture the Heathkit dream? Better yet, can you improve on it? I certainly hope so.

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Do you want to try and recapture a little bit of the Heathkit era today? There are several unbuilt Heathkits currently on the big auction house. Do a search on "Heathkit unbuilt" and you'll find them. You'll even find one that I have on there, a digital L/C meter still in the factory sealed box. And I'm only asking what I originally paid for it, back in the 80's.

I had another "in the box" Heathkit that I finally opened and built about 2 years ago. It brought back some wonderful memories (and it worked perfectly the first time) ;o)

Brian, I wish you the best of luck with your endeavor. By all means research it carefully. If you do it, we all want to see you be very successful with it.

Best 73,

Army - AE5P
Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas
acurtis at andersoft.com

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