
Heathkit - vinchuco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit
======
craftsman
It was a crisp fall Saturday when I first learned about the basement full of
computers.

The previous night my dad's boss hosted a party at his house that my parents
had attended. My dad was in the IS department of a medium-sized insurance
company, and his department was full of chess players, assembly language
programmers, ham radio operators, and computer tinkerers. My dad's boss was
all of those rolled into one. "You would love it!" my mom told me, "his
basement is full of computers!" My imagination ran wild.

Within a week or two my dad's boss invited us over. We pulled up to his house
and I gazed up at a 50-foot tower with a beam antenna next to his garage. As I
walked into the basement, I could hear strange sounds of beeping, static, and
garbled voice. My first sight was of three walls covered with a custom-built
set of cabinets that contained a dizzying array of electronic equipment. I
would later learn that it was full of Heathkit radios and computers. I was
awe-struck.

Later that fall my dad announced, "we're getting a computer." We proceeded to
spend several evenings and weekends at my dad's boss' house where they built
our family's Heathkit H-89 computer. As they soldered, I played on the
Heathkit pinball machine. Our H-89, as I recall, had 16K of RAM and a 4 MHz
Z-80 CPU. My first program was about twenty print statements that displayed a
crude outline of a football helmet using asterisks.

That winter I studied for and received my amateur radio novice, and later, my
general class license, and my dad's boss administered the novice test. I
remember him sending morse code at 6 or 7 WPM and excitedly decoding it and
reading it back to him. My first radio was a Heathkit purchased for $80 at a
ham 'flea market'. I went on to build a Heathkit VTVM (vacuum tube voltmeter),
a code practice oscillator, and a few other kits. There were several Christmas
nights spent soldering into the wee hours of the morning.

Without my dad, his boss, and Heathkit, it's unlikely I'd be doing what I do
today. Thanks for the memories, Heathkit.

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kabdib
I had an electronics bench when I was 13, started out with a Heathkit power
supply, then an early digital voltmeter (since I couldn't read resistor codes
very well, being colorblind). My dad built a tube-based mono amplifier and
radio. A few years later I built a kit computer (a very nice Digital Group
Z-80 system).

I still build kits and am getting back into tinkering with electronics after
35+ years of software hacking. Hardware keeps you honest about your abilities,
and the smoke keeps you humble about your mistakes. :-)

~~~
rbanffy
> Hardware keeps you honest about your abilities, and the smoke keeps you
> humble about your mistakes.

I'll use that. :-)

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mcmatterson
Building up a basement rec room stereo from a Heathkit kit is one of many
electronics related memories I have of bonding with my dad. I was less than 10
years old, and I'm sure he did most of the work, but it certainly helped teach
me -- as the article so wonderfully says -- that machines weren't magic, and
that curiosity combined with a healthy dose of fearlessness was enough to
understand just about anything. What a great thing these kits were.

~~~
zw123456
Me too, my Dad and I bonded over building a SW radio together. Heathkit was
the first in the Maker movement.

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__david__
My parent's house still uses the Heathkit programmable doorbell I put together
in 2nd grade (and the tune I made up for it).

And I still have my "atomic" clock that reads the NIST radio—same tech as the
self-setting wall clocks you can get nowadays, except completely discrete,
with 4 or 5 daughter cards, and a speaker so you can actually listen to the
beepy radio transmission.

I loved Heathkit. I so wish they were still around...

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S_A_P
My dad worked at a heathkit dealer in Houston back in the 70s. Growing up he
assembled both of our tvs, complete with a high frequency remote control that
worked somewhere between 14 and 20khz that I could hear when I put up to my
ear. We had a heathkit receiver that had an astounding 70watts per channel
back in the late 70s/early 80s. I remember being able to look at the thin
elastic cords that would allow you to tune into your station. Turn it fast and
it had that rubber band effect like the iOS browser. I remember thinking there
is nothing my dad can't make or fix back then. I hope the kits come back and
are as comprehensive and cost effective as previous times.

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codva
My AM/FM Heathkit radio worked the first time I powered it up. One of my
proudest moments in junior high.

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X-Istence
I found an old Heathkit at a garage sale:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/xistence/sets/7215762293061906...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/xistence/sets/72157622930619063/)

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tzs
There is a company trying to bring Heathkit back. A member of their board did
an AMA At the end of 2013:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/tabled/comments/1tdf45/table_iama_me...](http://www.reddit.com/r/tabled/comments/1tdf45/table_iama_member_of_the_heath_company_heathkit/)

~~~
vinchuco
>We hope to introduce a few kits in the first half of 2014. However, their
website [1] and facebook page [2] haven't been updated for 7 months.

[1] [https://www.heathkit.com/](https://www.heathkit.com/) [2]
[https://www.facebook.com/heathcompany](https://www.facebook.com/heathcompany)

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robomartin
I have a pair of Heathkit robots and robot arms in the garage in mint
condition, new, in the box, unassembled. Waiting for the right time to bring
them out and use them to inspire the kids.

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dugmartin
I used to stare longily at the Hero-1 ads at the back of magazines.

~~~
rbanffy
It was because of the Hero-1 that I bought (actually, made my mom buy) a my
firat Computers and Electronics magazine. Then Creative Computing, then BYTE
and so on...

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rotten
My grandfather, a retired Milk Truck driver, really got into Heathkit and
built several things, including a large TV. It made a strong impression on me
when I was in elementary school. I was rather disappointed when I got old
enough to do Heathkit projects myself that they had pretty much disappeared.

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brooklynjam
If Heathkit got their act together, I'm sure they could become successful
again. The Maker/DIY movement is big, and they do have that brand name. They
could even use the classic designs, retro is super big at moment. Yes, tubes
are back! :-)

~~~
grandalf
That's the goal. There is now a lot more competition though.

