Rare 1973 Heathkit BUILD! Pt.1

Vintage creakynes! 🤣😎

Another wonderful, tranquil video... the perfect antidote to eating a huge amount of food on Boxing Day!

Very nice, Fran! Thanks for this post! I built that kit myself in 1973. I was a kid, but I remember the build. I always had the radio on whenever I built heathkits. When I hear those songs these days, I sometimes get flashbacks to some specific part of a kit build. PS- I totally understand how you feel about opening the vacuum bag, but personally, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself. I would have brought it outside, put on a mask, and dumped it on a plastic tarp or split open garbage bag.

nj Phil

Thanks! Really enjoyable!

This is why I'm a patron, and part 2 still to come! Happy days.

David Peaker

Seems the kit got wet at some point. I'm worried the power transformer might be shorted.

There's a Heathkit signal tracer embedded in this photo from the 1960s. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/allcharlietabernaclechoir/i-am-a-zen-mormon-boy-mix-4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/allcharlietabernaclechoir/i-am-a-zen-mormon-boy-mix-4</a>

Loving this!

William Alsing

The meticulously neat circuits I make never work. The birdsnests generally do.

What a great video Fran! Brings back many great memories. Thanks!

David Blake

Nothing says Christmas like the aroma of a new Heathkit.

Gosh, I always ask myself whether it was a good thing for Schlumberger to own all those companies, or if the current model of focusing only on oilfield is better.

Great stuff - remember Heathkit from the 70s. Didn't they also have a low power short wave transmitter kit that was popular with radio hams?

I've used Multicore solder since, well, forever. And a tin of paste flux, though now supplemented with a flux pen. A nasty glass fiber brush for removing oxidation and corrosion (to be used only next to a vacuum nozzle). Acid flux and a 300W soldering gun for soldering case seams (though I now 3D print most of my cases).

BobC

Wonderful episode Fran. I need to pick up that soldering iron again!

Toon van der Pas

Wow, this is nostalgic. I started tinkering with electronics in the late 70s (I was 16 or 17) and remember Heathkit well. Unfortunately(?) I later discovered programming and went down that road instead for my career, but sometimes I miss the peaceful, meditative, feeling of the hours I spent with the soldering iron in my parents' basement...

Per-Erik Martin

I miss Heathkit. :-(

R Brooks

Takes me back. Over 20 years ago I put a lot of my equipment into storage. I think I still have a Heathkit audio oscillator, a distortion analyzer and probably a vtvm. Maybe when springtime comes I'll plan to visit them. Thanks for the trip down Benton Harbor lane.

John N Nelson

Ah the ole griefkit. Looks good!

AESFTW