Unusual Heathkits

Heathkit was primarily known for their electronics kits, most of which fell into the categories of test equipment, amateur radio, or consumer products. But they did make forays into other areas. In this video I'll look at some of the more unusual and little known Heathkit products.

[@manoffaith2501]

I built many Heathkits back in the day including their 25in color TV console. I really enjoyed building them. I wish they were still in business.

[@3vi1J]

Wow... I had no idea Heathkit had such a wide-ranging line of products back in the day. Thanks for sharing!

[@rewalton46]

When I worked as a bench technician for Heath in their Atlanta, Ga. store, my main specialty was fish finders. That was because I had been a sonar tech in the US Navy, the principle on which the fish finders operated. They also had some burglar alarm kits. Like all Heathkits, the main problem that crossed my bench was poor soldering. The kits as a whole were of exceptional quality when properly assembled.

[@ManVsOven]

Jeff: Thanks for all that research... wow... incredible. I wish I had kept all my HeathKit radios... I still have a few of accessories and test equipment. Thanks again for sharing.

[@CameraNut1000]

A fun trip down memory lane. I built one of the weather stations and the Spectre RC car.

[@dougkubash8673]

Thanks for sharing Jeff! Interesting!

[@kg2ix]

Thank you for a very interesting video. I had no idea that Heath offered some of these items.

[@frankpmarsala7682]

I built many of their kits . . . test equipment/audio/RC/TV's. My scopes and meters still work after 50 years.The Heath TV's were excellent, I built a 25", 13', and 19' before they were bought by Zenith. When that name went on, the quality went down! Our 27" Zenith came with all the boards and harnesses assembled in Mexico . . . not as fun a project or with the quality components of the Heath sets. On first power up, it kept blowing the circuit breaker. On examining the schematic, I found that the power supply harness was assembled wrong. The Tech at the Heath store said they had a whole production line like that causing much headache!

[@thirstyCactus]

Interesting! My grandparents had the Heathkit theater organ with the drum box option. I've many happy memories of sitting on that giant (comparatively) bench and trying all the levers and switches. The keybeds had florescent lamps beneath that could optionally illuminate colored note names under each key. In fact, I managed to save the Thomas drum module, before the organ was sadly scrapped, and made an Arduino shield for it 😄

[@rohnkd4hct260]

Funny part is, I remember some of this stuff.

[@Pwaak]

Very Interesting! Thank You!

[@stirlingschmidt6325]

Although the organ was quite expensive, the IO-4235 oscilloscope was $100 more, I think, at $1795 for the kit. I have one I bought at an antique shop for $5, simply because the cover was not attached.

[@weapea]

😓 ikea before IKEA.. good products, wish they were still here to sell me cheap sound-electronics to diy.

[@markgreco1962]

Have you ever seen the computer?

[@jefftranter]

I have seen the analog computers show up occasionally on eBay.

[@XPFTP]

i kind of wish they would come back. but the cost these days omg .... thanks biden. ops i ment c19 ops i ment .. bummer things are so much money