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poltr1One of the side-threads that came up on my last entry was about electronics kits. Years ago, Radio Shack was one of the places you could go to buy electronics components like resistors, transisitors, and diodes. They also carried assemble-it-yourself kits -- some already breadboarded like the 100-in-1 home electronics kit; some not. Now you'd be lucky to even find those things there. They've been replaced by pre-assembled components, modular systems, computers, patch cords, and electronic toys. In short, this ain't your father's Radio Shack.
Does anyone out there remember Heathkit? They were a company whose product line featured ready-to-assemble kits in a package. You'd follow the instruction manual, do all the soldering and assembly yourself, and (hopefully) end up with a finished working product. The only Heathkit kit I bought and assembled was a digital alarm clock, which now sits in my computer area. I specifically wired it to display 24-hour time; no other digital alarm clock I could find commercially could give me that.
A friend of mine in high school had a father who was seriously into Heathkits. If I remember correctly, their entire stereo system was built with Heathkit components. And one of my college buddies had a Heathkit computer terminal at home.
I found out in college that Heathkit was a subsidiary of Zenith, or was acquired by them. Unfortunately, Heathkit is no longer around, to the best of my knowledge. I don't know if it was the low demand for unassembled items, the high supply and low cost of assembly labor, the advances in integrated circuits (i.e. "chips"), or all of the above that finally did them in.
[Update: According to the Heathkit Museum website, the Heathkit company is still around, although the kit-manufacturing division has been discontinued. The company now focuses on computer and electroncs training. Visit the company website at heathkit.com.
The only other electronics kit manufacturer I'm aware of is PAiA Electronics, which makes small musical electronics devices like their FatMan analog synthesizer (just the oscillators, filters, and envelope contour controls; there's no attached keyboard). They may be small in size, but their sound is big. I'd love to purchase and assemble a FatMan, a vocoder, and some of their other goodies to add to the Sonic Arsenal. The Gnome mincro-synth and the Oz keyboard controller are no longer available.
I guess if I wanted or needed to get electronics components, I'd have to pick them up at Hamvention (and wait until mid-May), or make a trip to Mendelson's.
Does anyone out there remember Heathkit? They were a company whose product line featured ready-to-assemble kits in a package. You'd follow the instruction manual, do all the soldering and assembly yourself, and (hopefully) end up with a finished working product. The only Heathkit kit I bought and assembled was a digital alarm clock, which now sits in my computer area. I specifically wired it to display 24-hour time; no other digital alarm clock I could find commercially could give me that.
A friend of mine in high school had a father who was seriously into Heathkits. If I remember correctly, their entire stereo system was built with Heathkit components. And one of my college buddies had a Heathkit computer terminal at home.
I found out in college that Heathkit was a subsidiary of Zenith, or was acquired by them. Unfortunately, Heathkit is no longer around, to the best of my knowledge. I don't know if it was the low demand for unassembled items, the high supply and low cost of assembly labor, the advances in integrated circuits (i.e. "chips"), or all of the above that finally did them in.
[Update: According to the Heathkit Museum website, the Heathkit company is still around, although the kit-manufacturing division has been discontinued. The company now focuses on computer and electroncs training. Visit the company website at heathkit.com.
The only other electronics kit manufacturer I'm aware of is PAiA Electronics, which makes small musical electronics devices like their FatMan analog synthesizer (just the oscillators, filters, and envelope contour controls; there's no attached keyboard). They may be small in size, but their sound is big. I'd love to purchase and assemble a FatMan, a vocoder, and some of their other goodies to add to the Sonic Arsenal. The Gnome mincro-synth and the Oz keyboard controller are no longer available.
I guess if I wanted or needed to get electronics components, I'd have to pick them up at Hamvention (and wait until mid-May), or make a trip to Mendelson's.
