The spirit of Heathkits

[Fred Wittman]

BMW wrote:

>Jerry wrote:
>
>Hardly in the spirit of Heathkits.  Amen!
>I didn't spend nearly that much for my Kenwood TS-2000 back when they first
>came out.  And all I had to do was plug it in, NOT BUILD IT!
>
>73 de Jerry, KØEJF
>E.J.(Jerry) Forwood
>
>-- "Stu Lyon" <w6cux at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>Brian's first posting said $6,000. He has now revised it to be option-driven
>and to start at $3,000. Hardly in the spirt of Heathkits.
>
>73, Stu W6CUX
>Winnetka, CA
>w6cux at earthlink.net
>
>--------------------------------------
>
>By saying "hardly in the spirit of Heathkits", are you are thinking
>"Heathkits were cheap"? I couldn't afford them any more than a Collins back
>in 1968. An SB-101 with AC supply, speaker, auxiliary LMO (only way to get
>RIT back then), HD-10 keyer, and an HM-15 SWR meter was almost $600. That's
>a lot of bussing tables at $25/week for a teenager. And that's roughly
>equivalent to about $3300 today (for a KIT) according to the Inflation
>Calculator (http://www.westegg.com/inflation/). As for options, when you add
>in the available accessories (SB-610, 620, 630), you could easily be in the
>$850 price range, or over $4K today. Of course you could have bought a
>Hallicrafters SR-400 Cyclone or a Drake TR-4 or a Swan 350 for not too much
>more than an SB-101 and not have to build it. But you didn't. Why not?
>Perhaps because you liked the satisfaction of building it yourself. How much
>is that worth?
>
>The Sienna runs circles around the SB-101 at an equivalent price point.
>
>Methinks we've been spoiled by Japanese government subsidized electronics
>companies that bought the U.S. electronics market and put many U.S.
>manufacturers out of business with their illegal dumping, something that
>started in the Carter administration.
>
>Heathkit offered a Collins-like radio with some unique features for half the
>price. The Sienna offers things you can't get at ANY price from any
>commercial rig, and it is half the price of other high-end rigs. It also
>offers a kit-building experience much more like that of a Heathkit than most
>other simple kits of today. That makes it very much in the spirit of
>Heathkits in my mind.
>
>Of course if you think of it as just a "radio", well, then, I suppose you
>can be happy with a $1500 model. But if you want to have some FUN again,
>then just try doing it at that price.
>
>73,
>
>Brian, W0DZ
>
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>  
>
Just a thought I've offered here before.  When Heathkit was in flower, 
alot more of us tinkered with homebrew, mainly because the technology 
was much simpler.  Fourty years ago, building state-of-the-art was 
realtively easy.  For whatever reason, we are a little spoiled now, 
being able to buy in a tabletop rig a station that in Granddaddy's day 
would have taken a roomfull of equipment.  Does it make us better hams?  
That's debatable.  I think it's telling that of several boards included 
in this kit, only four are assembled by the builder.

Personally, I think there is a market for sophistocated test gear in kit 
form that can be had for cheap.  I for one could use a good spectrum 
analyzer module that plugs into my Techtronix.  There are any number of 
frequency generators, freq counters, field strength meters, etc that 
most of us need from time to time that would be easy and inexpensive to 
build, and that won't need Windows to run!  IMHO...

73 all, de Fred W., KG6NYK

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Products bought, sold or traded here is the responsibility of the
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