Questions for Ex Heath Types

[Don Peterson]

Thank you very much for the accolades on my Heathkit Semiconductor Cross Reference
list.  It's nice to know that people are using and appreciating the effort that
goes into maintaining it.

To answer your question, "172-" were what Heathkit called "Phantom" part numbers.
 The way a kit was built was by small assembly lines that would pack parts into
the brown paper bags that were identified by the "172-" number.  When the final
kit was assembled into the shipping box, it would be collated the same way but
with various "172-" bags, metal parts and larger parts.  Sometimes a "Phantom"
part could/would be used in more than one kit.  For instance, the IM-4110, IM-4120,
and IM-4130 used the same phantom part to hold the IC's for the mother board.
 The only read difference between them was the input board (contents), front
panel, and number of switches.  So if you were making up 5,000 of the "4130's",
15,000 of the "4120's" and 20,000 of the "4110'S", you would have made 40,000
of the bags that held the IC's for the motherboard.  These might be stored for
a few days in inventory until all of the sub-level items were completed and
finally placed into the final shipping box.

You are right about the part numbers.  They were assigned by only one person
(the "Part Cop") at Heathkit and he did a very good job of making sure that
each part was in the correct catagory or prefix.  Many of the resistors and
simple parts used what they called a "group Print" that would contain the various
characteristics of a part such as size, wattage, lead length etc. then they
would simply add the suffix with the value.

I have thought about compiling a complete list of parts in a "Used-In" report,
but just have not had the time.  I have over 500 manuals and it would be a good
source of identifying what parts are used in what kits.  This would be a very
tedious job.  Maybe some day.....


Thanks again....

Don Peterson
Data Professionals
Don at D8aPro.com

Cross reference
http://www.d8apro.com/Heath3.htm

Manuals available
http://www.d8apro.com/Heath2.htm

Parts Available
http://www.d8apro.com/Heath4.htm

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