Heathkit Interviews The Heathkit Files
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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2016
- I was invited to attend the Heathkit Reunion Picnic for former employees of Heathkit and Zenith Data Systems. I took this opportunity to talk to and interview a few Heathkit employees from the golden age of Heathkit . I got some insight on the history of Heathkit as well as some good stories. I am just a hobbyist and I am not a professional interviewer. I was a bit nervous but I think David and Ed's words do tell what it was like at Heathkit and I hope you will find it interesting and enjoyable.
TheRadioGeek. 
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Companies like Heathkit made this country great. When you employ quality people with a moral sound fine company you ensure greatness. The comments alone here within this video more than prove that. Sadly over the last 40 years or so I have watched greatness in our country turn into short term greed which builds nothing but bitterness and waste. You can see this in these men’s eyes when they speak of the Heathkit buyouts. I know also there are countless other examples of companies just like this that once built greatness - which in turn made our country a wonderful place to be. As I write this in November of 2021 our country is so far of course that I don’t know if we can ever get back to where we were. I can only pray so.
Those were two terrific interviews, especially the second guy, Ed. Heath Kit was a class act company. For the consumer, you had terrific choices of kits to buy to suit your needs. My father built, I believe, a 19" portable tv. When he ran into problem he could not figure out for himself, he called Heathkit company and there was someone on the other end of the line giving him the help he needed. My father always wanted to get into electronics but never did. This was as close as he came to it. It was a shame that the company had to close up shop do to lack of interested customers. It was easier just to buy one already made and not deal with problems. Heath Kit made my father happy as he was doing what most others never got and that was an education in building electronic devices.
Yes, you’re so right about Heathkit. There will never be a company like it again. It was a company with interesting products and people that cared about the customers and the products they sold.
This speaks to a time in America that is sadly gone forever.
Sad but true.
This is one of those videos that makes RUclips worthwhile. You did a wonderful job of asking interview questions. Those of use who built their kits will always have fond memories of Heathkit. It was wonderful to learn that the company was as friendly to its employees as to its customers. Thank you for capturing these interviews and sharing them with the rest of us!
RockyMountainHiker CO Thank you very much for the kind words and for watching.
Yes remember helping my Dad as we put the Healthkit radios together as a kid! 🙂 Sure miss those fun kit building days!😞
I'm glad this got recorded for posterity. When I was a kid I desperately wanted some of the kits I saw in the catalog but we were too poor. I saw a lot of assembled kits, however.
Glad you enjoyed the video. I’m sure all the people that worked at Heathkit have some great stories too, it was a lot of fun to talk to them.
Thanks very much! Great interviews. I loved building Heathkit kits, it is nice to see who was behind the scenes!
Glad you liked it. The guys at Heathkit are some of the nicest people around. Thanks for stopping by. 👍
Amazing video! When products were made with love and passion and not just to make more money.
Delatsch you are so right, When people loved what they did and the people that worked with them. You just don't find that anymore. Thanks for stopping by.
Dear Radiogeek, great video on heathkit, My work shop is full of Heathkit products and use them everyday....
Thank you. It was a lot of fun talking to the guys from Heathkit and listening to all the stories of such a great company. 👍
Heath was a great American company for employees and customer.
It sure was a great place with great people.
Great Video!! My family lived right down the road from Heath Company. I assembled probably 12 - 15 kits. Had lots of fun assembling these kits and sure wish they were in business today!!
Doug Kubash thanks! Glad you liked the video. You are right, Heathkit made some nice kits. I think a lot of people miss them. Thanks for watching. 👍
I built several Heathkits, I was lucky enough to have a Heathkit Retail Store a couple of Blocks from my High School. I did cut/skip a few Classes to go to the Store and drool over the Stereos and TVs. By the time I was able to afford the Kits I wanted to build, Zenith had run the Company into the Ground😥
Thanks for sharing your Heathkit memories and for stopping by.
I loved building Heathkits! Test equipment, TVs, stereo, computers, ham radios. Will always keep my SB-104 from about 44 years ago.
Couple short stories - I worked for a while at a retail ham radio store and a customer asked another employee if we accepted Heathkits in trade. He was told no, because so many of them looked like they were put together by a blind man with a blow torch.
I built a small shortwave radio when I was in grade school. A friend of mine liked it and decided to build one. It didn't work. Well, often when you have bare wires you slip some insulation over them. In the instructions, this insulation is called spaghetti. Yes, he actually put real spaghetti over the wires! I don't remember what the actual problem was with the radio.
That’s funny you should tell the story about the spaghetti over the wires. I was talking to a Heath tech and ask him what was the strangest thing he had come in. He told me that a radio came in that did work but stopped working. In the instructions told you to put macaroni sleeves over the wires. This was a clear plastic tubing but the builder used elbow macaroni. I guess it worked until the heat from the radio made it crack and cause shorts. Thanks for the stories and for watching. 👍❤️📻
Just loved the video. Thank you for showing real people, proud to be part of the good old days of a great America and his industry.
alexfreddi thank you. The Heathkit people are some of the nicest people I have ever met.
Thanks! Brought back fond memories when I was a Practical Wireless magazine subscriber back in the UK. Often had reviews of Heathkit projects. Great stuff!
1nformatica I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for stopping by.
You have some very interesting restoration projects. Not vintage but '80s, soon I will be updating my QUAD 44 Preamp. Not sure if I will be able to hear the improvement these days!!
I learn to build heathkit oscilloscopes here in Chile at my school at the age of 16 in 1980. 10 MHz, dual trace. I couldn't learn more electronic in other way than assembling those kits. We assemble some other Heathkit sets. My brothers and I got our second oscilloscope, 5 MHz single trace, from Heathkit. We use that instrument a lot time. I was delighted with those electronic. After a long electronic engineering career, i still miss that time assembling electronic. I'm sure that i could still keep buying Heathkit.
Thanks for sharing your memories of Heathkit with us! I'm sure other people had similar experiences with Heathkit over the years. It's too bad that kids today don't have a company like Heathkit.
Great interviews and history worth preserving.
I'm glad you liked the interviews. Thanks for watching!
I have to agree with you. I have several of the VTVM's and a IO-12 as well. I love the Vacuum tube gear. I also Like learning about how things work, through restorations.
BobZ I worked for RCA Components out of Chicago and called on HeathKit During David Nurse's time. Being a Ham W9MUD-W2HER Now, it was a great customer to serve and enjoy. I even stayed overnight to go to one of their yearly Sat. Ham-Fest. Started using Heath Items around 1955 when working for Tung-Sol Elec. for one of their Labs. First Transmitter I built was their HW-100, and it kept going from there. TV for friends and myself, and more Ham items. Still have their Home Furnace Air purifier, 25" Color TV, AC Volt Meter, Freq. Counter, Audio AM/FM Pre-Amp with Amplifier, Resistor and Cap Boxes, VTVM meter, Signal Gen., Battery Elim., and some other stuff. Still have the manuals of things I sold. Again it was a great time for good relations. I still have the Heath company Phone list of that day.
If you are watching it would be a treasure to upload and share these one of a kind documents you have! Nice history to hear
All of my Heathkits are fully operational and in use.My first radios were a Heathkit DX-20 and an AR-3 receiver both of which I built.
Many decades later I met a Heathkit engineer at a company I worked for. He did a lot of prototype design work on new Heathkit equipment as the company was breaking out into new areas. As mentioned, he was another "engineer" who did not have an official degree. He just knew how things worked. As technology changed, he just learned to adapt. I guess the purchase of Heathkit assisted in his leaving the company.
So true, a lot of people get overlooked because they don’t have a degree. I have met people that are quote “just a technician” that have better ideas than some engineers. Thanks for stopping by. 👍
@@TheRadiogeek What was interesting was that this engineer was the nicest gentleman. And he always took the time to inquire about the customer's needs and how we could make a better product. Many engineers ignore the marketing people thinking we are just redundant idiots. I have found that engineers from the big schools are so aloof and act like no one could possibly comprehend information at their level, so they go in less than profitable directions. I had one engineer who said that talking to me would be a waste of time. I told him if I could not keep up, he could walk out. We had a pleasant 4 hour conversation. After all, I built Heathkits as a kid and grew from there!
@@wattsenough what a great story! I don’t know why some people think they are so much better than someone else. I look at it this way. You might know something I don’t and I might know something you don’t so let’s learn from each other.
The SB-310 was my first purchase. As a teenager I was always tinkering and into CB/shortwave. I wanted the Heathkit receiver. My mother suggested I get a job so that summer at 15 I got a job at a local restaurant. And that started my career in electronics and then computers (mainframes > MAC > PC).
I applied for a job in the Service Dept. with Dave, but was rejected. I blamed it as being at odds between military nomenclature and civilian. I knew simple schematic terms from military electronics schools that did not fit the Heathkit way. I did go on to be hired by Bill Adams in Assembly Test and did become more experienced in troubleshooting getting favorable reviews. I was HCT tech stamp 34 and submitted numerous Technical Exchange Bulletin updates. One I remember was for the Weather Station that could display uncertain logic states on the wind direction code wheel. Others included the H-8 computer where undershoot could cause uncertain logic states. I credit Dale Schrage to help me understand digital logic in these chips. The dirty bum cheated me out of $50 for a small HDD for a laptop code named Mustang if memory is correct.
I really miss those days when people mattered more than money. It was a great company that made much loved products. It's obvious to me that it was because of the quality of the people that worked there.
I love heath kit stuff and have built a couple things,wish I would have bought more,we thought they be around for ever.
Ron Thompson yep it's too bad we no longer have heathkit. I built a few Heathkits and always enjoyed them. Thanks for stopping by.
My first station was a DX-60B and HG-10 VFO I built, paired with a used National receiver. I still use my Heathkit VTVM. Wish we could still build those kits.
Yeah it’s to bad you can’t get those kits today. Bygone days now but fun to remember. Thanks for watching. 👍
I'm a big Heathkit fan.I own an SB303,Sb301,2-SB-401's 2-SB-650 frequency displays one of which I converted to 7 segment green LED readouts,and an SB-220 linear amp.Bob WB6JRY.
Robert Jonasson Heathkit sure did make some nice radios. I had a SB313 shortwave radio that looked like the 303 line. I wish I still had it. Thanks for stopping by.
Still use my old heath stuff. Was well designed.
Yes it was well designed by people who cared. Thanks for stopping by! 👍
I worked for the Stackpole company calling on Heath. I sold them resistors, switches, etc. It was a great experience and had fun working with other hams! Memories of a lifetime. A year ago, I purchased an SB-303. Now, I have over 20 Heathkits, having fun reliving old memories. de KG9H (ex-WA9YXY)
Frank Krozel a parts rep for Heathkit, that sounds like a interesting job. I bet you got to know some of the guys at Heath. That old Heath radio sounds neat. I had a sb 313 shortwave radio at one time. That thing was a tank. Thanks for stopping by!
Really MISS Heathkits. I built a O-Scope, A color TV, a O-scope calibrator, a 5 channel RC system and some others. Shoot I probably talked these guys your interviewing. Lets Bring Heath Back!
Kelly VB yes I think that we all miss Heathkit. A lot of good memories for sure. Thanks for stopping by.
I worked for RCA for 32 years until GE bought us and destroyed a great American company. I can commiserate with you.
It certainly was a shame to see it go.
The radio geek this cool the heath kit interviews the heath kit files
Waiting for my new Heathkit clock.
Back in the Eighties, my boss's boss was Dr. Chas Gilmore of Heath/Zenith based in Benton Harbor. It would be interesting to see an interview with him regarding Heathkit inner workings and the merge w/Zenith. I don't know if Chas is still around though. I remember him as a very intelligent gentleman and a delightful storyteller.
Peter Arnt I'm sure that would be an interesting interview for sure. I'm sure a lot of Heathkit employees could tell some very interesting stories about the company. Everyone that worked for them that I talked to just loved working for them. Thanks for stopping by! 👍
Thanks for these nice interviews,
I build several kits when i was young ( i am 70+ now .. )
Heathkit helped me learn and love my job : electronics engineer :-)
Nostalgia, nostalgia ...
Eddy Fontaine glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching.
I have a working Power Supply, CB-1, GW12, GW22 that still work today
I was there at the point where Schlumberger was looking to sell to Zenith ... the SS-8000 (became the SS-9000 with the WARC band added) and VL-1180/VL-2280 VHF power amp ... 1978-1979 timeframe ... W4FLA (Sherm Lifer sp?) was the PLM and Meijer was chief engineer ... Bud Simciak (sp?) was doing the new 2M talkie at the time ... George Rohr (sp?) was brought in to do the new 2M rig the 2036 I think.
uploadJ cool memories! Thanks for sharing with us.
I'm remembering Dave now too. He worked in Ham Engineering at the same time I did.
BTW, if you see Dave again, ask him if he still wears a pocket protector! I seem to recall he wore one to keep his pens in ...
I really enjoyed watching this video. To see such committed employees discuss working at Heathkit, and being involved in an era where quality electronic kit building was unique and popular. Just watching these guys talk shows proves they were valuable assets to Heathkit and the positive reputation that was beyond that brand. I'm sure as others watched this, they must have dreamed of resurrecting Heathkit into the company it once was, and what a cool thing it could be to involve the same employees who I'm sure would love being apart of it again... perhaps a fantasy, but there still is a huge Heathkit following, and a demand for the few valuable products that left from that era. My hats off to the Heathkit employees as you were also a part of my past and pleasant memories. God Bless every one of you.
Michelle Pucca The Heathkit group was a very unique collection of talent and drive that just can't be duplicated. It would be nice to see Heathkit like it was but with cheap parts and kits from China on EBay I don't think it's possible. Thanks for stopping by.
In this series I unbox and build the Heathkit AA-1800 preamplifier. Stereo Review said, “it does practically everything one could want, and does it to perfection.” ruclips.net/video/ruGxeGqGiIk/видео.html
I am looking for a foot pedal for a Heath kit starmaker guitar amplifier and just cant find one anywhere.
Anyone who knows where to find one i'd appreciate it.
Just a suggestion to maybe use more directional mics to eliminate the chatter of the people in the background.
Do you know where I can find an operations manual for the SB-303? I have a good one and plan to put it on the air with an even older DX-100 transmitter
Try www.ebaman.com/index.php/component/remository/Home-Electronics/Heathkit/S/orderby,2/page,2/?Itemid=0 You will need to make a free account to download the file. Good luck.
The radio geek iam thinking about getting my ham license
Thanks for posting this! It's great to hear the true story of what is probably the largest selling "do it yourself" kit company! I was a bit of a nerd as a child and was repairing anything I could get my hands on and was only 10yrs old when it began. I ended up being the head of all electrical work on any job my father was hired to do as a General Contractor. It was funny when he was angry about my knowing more than he did and had to correct him on a lot of the jobs we worked on-he would be embarrassed to have a teenage boy who knew more than he did when it comes to electrical wiring,grounding setting up a breaker panel! But it all started with the work I was doing at 10 😂
Barry Inglett I'm glad you liked the video. Heathkit was a very unique place with really nice people. I know I miss the Heathkit days!
good stuf! it's not the same world i grew up in . . . bugger.
Thank you, glad you liked it. Yeah the good old days right? Thanks for stopping by.
I recently bought a Heathkit Mohigan for $100 from a man claiming to be an electronics expert. Said the radio was gone through and restored,including replacing the caps. The radio performed poorly with the tele antenna but he claimed that was due to location only picking up one nearby AM station no WWV or really anything else.
Really don't know how to proceed, I am not an expert. I did order an antenna from MFJ that should be enough but I suspect that is not going to make much of a difference given I have now seen video's of fine performance from the telescopic antenna. As a rather sickly child I enjoyed many many hours of listening on my Halicrafter S120 but that radio is toast. Studying to get my ticket but still have a keen interest in listening and wanted a vintage radio. How should I proceed, would appreciate guidance. BTW I did get Radio Romania at about 9PM EDT and some spanish broadcasts after dark but no WWV on any frequency.
John
Raymond, Maine
Hello, The fist thing I would do is get a hold of the manual for this
kit. I would then go over it as if I was building it. Make sure it was
put together correctly and check resistor values and cap to see if age
has changed values over time. Heathkit manual have a very good
troubleshooting section too. You might also want to look into the local
amateur radio club in your area and ask if anyone would want to help you
with it or take a look at it for you. I hope that helps you. Thanks
for watching and good luck with your radio. :)
just for a side note about the employees that they won't tell you. many of my relatives worked there and I knew many more. we lived only a few mins away. many of the female employees , in the office, inspectors and line workers developed cancers and did not live long. not sure why men did not get cancers but the types of cancers were mostly in the reproductive areas. at that time, however, the company probably did not realize how bad the air was with all the soldering and heavy metals in the air so we can't totally blame them but, g.y.n.s in the area had a suspicion of cause of the localized cancers. just saying.
I hadn’t heard that before. It could be that almost everyone used to smoke back in the day? Thanks for stopping by. 👍❤️📻
np, no, I knew 5 of them personally and none of them smoked. when I visited heath co. , I remember a haze in the air and the smell of flux. most of the line people were women, needless to say, are more dexterous and faster then men lol. I still have a few heath kits. one is a z100 (had a z90 too) the 100 is still right next to me as I type and still works.
william kechkaylo oh yes the Z100 was a CPM computer. I never had one but did have the HealthKit version of the Zenith Z-148 MS DOS computer. I remember that the monitor was more challenging to build than the computer itself.
yep cpm. I programmed in assembler for the h/z 90 and 100. cpm, ya, bill gates took cpm and changed the jump table and called it ms-dos. cpm programs could not run on ms-dos because he changed the jump table. ever wonder why he refused to release the source code for ms-dos?? because people would realize that he stole cpm. I thinks you are right - monitor was a pain in the but to build. still works though!!
@@williamkechkaylo7915 I remember looking at sectors on the HDOS floppies and seeing Gordon Letwin's name all over the place!
Sorry, I'm very interested but there is too much noise in the background
I love my Heathkit AA-50!
Nice amp with some big transformers. 😎👍 thanks for stopping by.
I had put together the color 25 inch tv. Turned it on for the first time and smoke came from the back of the set. Pulled the plug and called the Heathkit store in Rockvill Md. Talked to a older German man that worked in the Tech department. He told me to power it on which I did. He told to to check to see what was smoking. Told him what it was and he told me I had a purple wire on the wrong connection. Made a mad dash to Rockville (65 mile one way approx) and picked up the part and after replacing it and correcting the wire problem set came up with a very nice picture without doing much setup.
Would love to see the old Heathkit back in business.
George Myers stories like that are very common for Heathkit. Heathkit was the king of customer service. Their slogan we won't let you fail says it all. Heathkit employees loved helping people and solving problems. Thanks for sharing your story and for watching!
ss-9000 as the best they ever made
It's really sad, people lose interest in the hobby, I've been a ham almost 15 years, I find the kits fun to build, unfortunately you can find kits anymore, 73's
Kit building is fun but with all the low cost electronics from China it would hard for a company like Heath to exist. Thanks for stopping by.
Heath was a great company? When American was GREAT!
Just a suggestion to maybe use more directional mics to eliminate the chatter of the people in the background.
Yes you’re right that would have been a better way to do it. I only had a lapel mic at the time. Thanks for the suggestion and for watching.