4 ms·

They do die horrible deaths. Half the Heathkit stuff I have picked up over the years has been utterly irrecoverably buggered by the moron who assembled it to st

by hughrr 5y ago

They do die horrible deaths. Half the Heathkit stuff I have picked up over the years has been utterly irrecoverably buggered by the moron who assembled it to start with or someone who modified it later. Amateur radio kit is the worst variety.

GeorgeTirebiter 5y ago
My experience has been exactly the opposite. Because people took pride in their work. Zenith TV had a set of commercials saying "The hand-crafted quality goes in, before the name goes on" -- they hand-built their TVs for a long time after PCBs arrived, and used that fact to sell 'quality'. So 'hand-built' was synonymous with 'quality' for a generation of kit-builders. (Also 'cheapskate' because in those days, electronic kits were cheaper than pre-built units.)
- hughrr 5y ago
  I think that’s survivor bias. A big chunk of stuff barely worked and didn’t last as long. I had a couple of old and tektronix scopes which are amazingly reliable after 50 years according to the collectors. Nope! Yours are the exceptional ones on the failure bell curve. There are a hundred that were scrapped before you got yours. Mine were asshats.
  - GeorgeTirebiter 5y ago
    Could be. I'll ask around. My Tek scopes (analog vintage anyway) had visited the Tek Shop at least twice. I recently 'restored' two EC-1 Analog Computers. Both were extremely well-built; and in one of them, the caps were even still good (!). My experience is 60s through mid 70s Heathkits. I don't have much experience with 'newer' models. Or older, for that matter. (My first kit was a transistor checker; then a DX-60A. Last kit was probably the mid-range AM/FM receiver/amp. I still have that, and it works great.)
buescher 5y ago
Like the posted article, this guy took an SB-101 all the way back down to "kit" and rebuilt it: https://sites.google.com/site/radiow2pa/Home/articles/Heathkit-SB-101-Rebuild-and-Restoration-Notes https://sites.google.com/site/radiow2pa/Home/articles/Heathk... God save us all from the man with the golden screwdriver, though.
- hughrr 5y ago
  I think some of the stuff I’ve seen was soldered together with Jesus’ soldering iron or bashed together with rocks. I’m surprised the author found enough bits to make a good SB-101. I built a fully stacked Elecraft K2 to perfection a number of years to cleanse my soul.

by hughrr 5y ago

GeorgeTirebiter 5y ago

My experience has been exactly the opposite. Because people took pride in their work. Zenith TV had a set of commercials saying "The hand-crafted quality goes in, before the name goes on" -- they hand-built their TVs for a long time after PCBs arrived, and used that fact to sell 'quality'. So 'hand-built' was synonymous with 'quality' for a generation of kit-builders. (Also 'cheapskate' because in those days, electronic kits were cheaper than pre-built units.)

hughrr 5y ago
I think that’s survivor bias. A big chunk of stuff barely worked and didn’t last as long. I had a couple of old and tektronix scopes which are amazingly reliable after 50 years according to the collectors. Nope! Yours are the exceptional ones on the failure bell curve. There are a hundred that were scrapped before you got yours. Mine were asshats.
- GeorgeTirebiter 5y ago
  Could be. I'll ask around. My Tek scopes (analog vintage anyway) had visited the Tek Shop at least twice. I recently 'restored' two EC-1 Analog Computers. Both were extremely well-built; and in one of them, the caps were even still good (!). My experience is 60s through mid 70s Heathkits. I don't have much experience with 'newer' models. Or older, for that matter. (My first kit was a transistor checker; then a DX-60A. Last kit was probably the mid-range AM/FM receiver/amp. I still have that, and it works great.)

buescher 5y ago

Like the posted article, this guy took an SB-101 all the way back down to "kit" and rebuilt it: https://sites.google.com/site/radiow2pa/Home/articles/Heathkit-SB-101-Rebuild-and-Restoration-Notes https://sites.google.com/site/radiow2pa/Home/articles/Heathk... God save us all from the man with the golden screwdriver, though.

hughrr 5y ago
I think some of the stuff I’ve seen was soldered together with Jesus’ soldering iron or bashed together with rocks. I’m surprised the author found enough bits to make a good SB-101. I built a fully stacked Elecraft K2 to perfection a number of years to cleanse my soul.