Heathkit declares bankruptcy,closes for good (again)

[rtc]

http://www.arrl.org/news/heathkit-declares-bankruptcy-closes-for-good-again

 

[nocomradio]

Too bad they couldn't pull it together and get going again. In this age of technology they probably could have offered some really cool projects too.

I do think however that when they went under the first time, it was a sign that the industry of supplying do-it-yourself kits was on the decline, and interest in that stuff was becoming a smaller and smaller segment of the population.

 

[fredcantu]

I used to love building projects, tinkering and refining "back in the day."
But components have gotten too small and too delicate for the average do-it-yourselfer.
Transistors and such were much more forgiving than today's solid state devices.

 

[KeithE4]

I used to love building projects, tinkering and refining "back in the day."

The last Heathkit I built was an HW-9 transceiver in the late '70s.

But components have gotten too small and too delicate for the average do-it-yourselfer.

Thru-hole parts are still readily available through the standard parts houses (Digi-Key, Mouser, etc.).

Transistors and such were much more forgiving than today's solid state devices.

Not really. I've been working in the electronics industry as a technician and now an engineer for 37 years. The devices made today are far more reliable than the 2N107s and 1N34s of the "good old days" - IF you follow the data sheets properly and design your circuits accordingly. Early transistors were not forgiving at all.

Since Al Gore invented the Interwebs, the amount of info on homebrewing your own projects (not just electronics) is so widespread that packaged kits are really no longer necessary.

 

[jerrygreen1]

Sad, indeed. I remember building many Heathkits during my high school years in the early 1960s. But times are different and today's kids would rather play video games than learn (in this case electronics)-by-doing.

 

[w9wi]

Sad, indeed. I remember building many Heathkits during my high school years in the early 1960s. But times are different and today's kids would rather play video games than learn (in this case electronics)-by-doing.

I would suggest the DIY electronics field isn't nearly as dead as many seem to think.

It may have been at its most visible during the last season of America's Got Talent, when one of the more successful acts involved dancing in wearable electronics. (light strings, whose programmed electronic changes complemented the dancers' moves)

Small companies like Adafruit and Sparkfun have built a business around serving the "maker" community -- selling components and assemblies to the homemade electronics crowd. (Sparkfun has 143 employees, it's not some guy selling a literal handful of kits out of his basement...) Robotics and art seem to be the focus of this community.

Another example might be a group called the "Overpass Light Brigade". You may or may not agree with their politics (they seem to be an offshoot of the Wisconsin Occupy movement) but it's hard to argue their repurposing of available LED strings to deliver a message isn't an application of homebrew electronics by a demographic not typically associated with such things.

I think what may lead to considerable dismay (and may have been part of what killed Heathkit) is that radio is not a central part of these folks' electronic experience. Largely, "radio" is a tool they use -- with pre-packaged wireless modems -- to facilitate a project that's mostly about something else.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I think they started making poor decisions in what kits to make.

(1) Their television kits were far better than Zenith. I remember seeing rural installations where perfect color from 250 to 300 miles was normal.

(2) Entering the robot market was a mistake. Robot technology was far too primitive at the time to be of any use.

(3) Entering the computer market was a mistake. PC's would soon go to Windows. "Kits" would have to consist of motherboards and disk drives and cards. Not very interesting or challenging.

(4) Entering the educational market was a mistake. Heathkits were always educational. And fun. Not so the educational kits.

If they had stuck with their core of things they did well - hi-fi / stereo gear, ham gear, TV, test equipment I think they would still be around. Those other lines drew resources away from their core business, the number and quality of kits declined.

There is no reason why they couldn't have done kits that included 1206 case surface mount resistors. Those are large enough and robust enough to be soldered by an amateur. Through hole IC's are fine for soldering. If anything, the advent of IC's would have made more kits easier for complete novices. If a part was only available in surface mount, on a fine pitch - Heathkit usually gave the hard to assemble pieces (like FM front ends) as pre-assembled modules, and just treated them like a part in the instructions.

 

[Gatekeeper007]

Looking at this topic take a look at what has happened to Ramsey Electronics. We use to buy all kinds of camera kits, amplifier kits, Rf kit amps, ect... and then came the government. The government took a bunch of Ramsey's equipment and kits saying they could be used for spying and or illegal use. Needless to say this hurt Ramsey Electronics and my business which was perfectly legal and had nothing to do with spying or anything illegal but was unable to get the parts we needed from another source and after 19 years of operation fell apart. When I asked the government what we were suppose to do they said "sorry". My company and four others went over the cliff never to return because the government was afraid that the modules and parts could be used for spying and or illegal uses and didn't give a D**n about the honest companies that needed them to operate. I wonder if Heathkit had to ever face this problem.