Demise of Heathkit

[Ed Kotkiewicz]

Neil Morrison wrote:

> What was with the Heath Boonie Bike kits, etc? Was that a good idea?
>
> Regards,
>
> Neil

EK> Neil, Heath was always on the prowl for something new to try out.  Many
of these items were short lived and some caused a new line of items to be
created.  RC model planes started off very small and then picked up into
full blown product line.  The Boonie Bike was a very stout rig and it lasted
longer then expected so I have to assume that the company made money off of
it.  Automotive instruments was another item that started off small and grew
into a product line.  If you had access to a complete catalog set you could
track the items that never caught on, or were short lived.  It was equally
interesting to watch the various owners and their approaches to customer
wants and need.

One minor failing that the company had was with their manuals.  Now before
anyone starts shooting missiles my way, let me explain what I mean.  First
off, the tech manual folks did one heck of a good job.  Folks speak, to this
day as to the detail and quality of workmanship and I agree.............to a
point.  Here is a good case in point.  The HR-1680 is a nifty little ss rx.
I have two of them and they are very nice ham band radios.  If you look at
the history of that radio's manual though, you will find that it went from a
basic radio on out to a -08 manual.  If you have the manuals for all 8
versions, you would be hard pressed to discover what the differences are
until you hit the -08 all by itself.  The -08 made a very significant change
to the power supply board.  One would be hard pressed to try to pick out
what caused the other manuals to change.  Being retired military, I could
always determine what the correct page changes were to a particular military
product manual and to determine what mods had been introduced at what
point.  With Heath products, sometimes a mod kit came out along with
documentation, but I never recalled one for the HR-1680.  So 20 years later,
this information filters down from one person to another.  We end up with a
limited cult of "experts".  Guys like Dave K, Mike Bryce and Mike Shelton.
I sure wish all the information was there for everyone.

As previously stated, Heath started downhill during the Zenith ownership.
It wasn't anyone thing.  Dave K gave a very correct answer.  He should know,
he grew up in Heathland.  BTW, my wife was a late 1970's Ham/tech at the
Heath plant and she would totally agree with what Dave stated.

Enjoy what you can out of the productline.

Ed

>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kechkaylo Dave (ATLINKS)" <KechkayloD at TCE.COM>
>
> > John (et al):
> >
> > I think Heath Company would have slumped overall, particularly in the
> > amateur radio product line, anyway, as newer, better, products were
> offered
> > by Japanese companies.......
>
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