Heathkit

[Erik Dragos]

There is no doubt that kits like these today would be
much more expensive.  If a company was to flourish
making kits in todays market they would have to be
superior products or very unique and both would only
add to the up front cost.  Also, with the
miniturization of components, throw-hole parts are
becoming more rare and more expensive.  It would be
very difficult and impractical to assemble a surface
mount kit.  However, if the product was unique enough
(like a VFD Caller ID box) I would be pullin out my
magnifying glass and needle soldering iron!

It all adds up to "Those days are over"


--- Bill Coleman <aa4lr at ARRL.NET> wrote:

> In this environment, there is no labour to be saved
> in a kit. Indeed, it
> often costs MORE to package a piece of equipment as
> a kit than to produce
> the final product.
>
> In the 90's and today, matters are worse. A desire
> for further
> miniturization and cost reduction has created an
> industry full of SMT
> parts that can be assembled by an automated factory
> for nothing. Those
> same SMT parts are difficult to impossible to
> assemble by hand.
>

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Find a job, post your resume.
http://careers.yahoo.com

-----------------------------------------------------------
This list is a public service of the City of Tempe, Arizona
-----------------------------------------------------------

Subscription control - http://www.tempe.gov/lists/control.asp?list=HEATH
To post - HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Archives - http://interactive.tempe.gov/archives/HEATH.html