Great news for kit builders! Legendary company Heathkit has started manufacturing kits again. Though their first line-up of products do not include radios, they are planning to cater to the amateur radio community as soon as next year.
I would like to believe that the popularity of the Maker community has given Heathkit the ability to re-enter the growing kit building market (it has certainly given Radio Shack reason to continue carrying components).
Here is an announcement from Heathkit’s website:
Thank you for your overwhelming response to our announcement that Heathkit is back into the Do-it-Yourself kits business. We received many great suggestions for kits you would like to build.
We will be releasing Garage Parking Assistant kit (GPA-100) in late September and soon after the Wireless Swimming Pool Monitor kit will be available.
Based on your input, we are looking at developing amateur radio kits. Our goal is to have kits available by the end of year.
Please keep your suggestions coming so that we can continue to bring you interesting, unique Heathkit products.
Now is the time to let Heathkit know you that you want shortwave and amateur radio kits!
You can contact Heathkit at the following address:
Heathkit
2024 Hawthorne Avenue
St. Joseph, MI. 49085
(269) 925-6000 : Phone
(800) 253-0570 : Toll-free
(269) 925-2898 : Fax
[email protected]
I don’t know where someone got the idea that Heathkit was in St. Joseph, Mich., but it is not. The very link given above for Heath shows otherwise. This is the “Contact” link:
https://shop.heathkit.com/page/contactus
Can’t wait for shortwave kits. Scoured eBay for new old stock for years
I suspect there’d be a small, but dedicated, community that would love to simply buy vintage Heathkits exactly as they were when first introduced. Many kits wouldn’t make sense (TVs, Stereo Amps, etc.) but the radio kits would be wildly popular.
Many, many Hams would pay dearly for a *real* SB-220/221 2KW Linear KIT, for example. The same design, the same parts, the same instructions. Of course, it would be nice if a few popular modifications were documented/included.
It would be interesting to go through the old catalogs and see what it would take bring some of the kits back – antenna tuners, keyers, etc. In some cases the kit may not make sense, in other cases the parts may simply not be available any more, but the chance to build a *real* Heathkit has emotional draw that many customers will pay a bit more for…
They are still taking surveys at the heathkit site. Click the ‘privacy notice” and you will be directed to the survey page.
Just hear that you are starteing to produce kits again don’t forget us shortwave listeners
Amateur radio
How about making some partial kits. Like a linear amp with cabinet, power transformer, Band switch, maybe a few other parts and let the owner decide how to put it together. It would save you a lot of problems also.