Today I found some small 5 inch tv's at our local Goodwill store. I know surprised even me. Here is a photo. From left to right a 1977 Sears, 1984 Sears, and on the right a Heathkit from the 80's. I will have to find some batteries to test the 77 model since it didn't have a power cord. The other two produce a snowy raster and all of them have 300 ohm antenna connections fo a balun to connect a converter. Grand total $17.50.

That Heathkit was also sold under the Zenith name, I had one for a while.

There are some AA batteries for the clock in a compartment somewhere, it gets overlooked and the batteries can corrode inside so find it and make sure they are removed.

The Heathkit is a GR5005 from August 1984. The batteries were in really bad shape. It will clean up though. It did have the Zenith wall wart power supply with it. The AA battery was behind the 6 D batteries that had corroded. I suspect that with a good cleaning and some new batteries it will work fine. On AC i do get a snowy raster, so it appears the major componants are working.

The battery compartments in the other two are fine. No corrosion.

VERY cool Heathkit! That was from after Zenith had bought Heath. I had forgot that there was a kit version of that (Taiwan-made) Zenith 5-inch B&W set. They were certainly the last USA-made black-and-white sets, then. Did they come with pre-assembled boards, I wonder?

I had that Sears set at one time. Not a bad performer.

It will be interesting to see if the heathkit was indeed a kit or just purchased assembled. When I get time to open it up maybe it will be obvious. I suspect the board with the IF strip and tuner would be pre assembled, but if there are any other boards they may have been user assembled.

If I remember right, items that were not available as kits were labeled "Heath" in that era as opposed to "Heathkit". I think I do remember seeing this set as a kit in one or more Heathkit catalogs. It was not cheap, maybe over $200 even, and also maybe equal in price to or more expensive than the built (Zenith) version, especially if the Zenith was on sale at an ordinary store.

As a kit the Heahtkit was $149.95 and fully assembled $179.95. The rechargable battery pack was optional.

Thank you for posting that catalog page and clarifying details. It could have been a factory-built set, then.