Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete Deksnis
Heathkit is very much alive having continued its technical education business after killing the kit business. It is a big player in the technical ed market.
http://www.heathkit.com/aboutus.html |
Pete:
I just looked at Heathkit's website and was amazed at how times have changed. I remember Heathkit in the '70s with their full line of electronic gear in kit form, especially their TVs, radios and ham radio equipment. Before I got my first ham radio license in 1972, I had a Heathkit GR-64 four-band communications receiver and a Heath HD-16 code-practice oscillator; my first amateur transmitter was a Heathkit DX-40. My dad was a schoolteacher (electronics) in a southwestern suburb of Cleveland in the late sixties through about 1985; the high school at which he taught had an entire Heathkit amateur radio station (the school's club callsign was WB8GNL), outfitted with SB-series gear.
I'm glad to know, however, that Heathkit is still in business in Benton Harbor, Michigan. They were too good to be killed off entirely. Their kit electronics business was very good while it lasted, but things change all the time. KX250rider (Charles), in the Los Angeles area, had a post today in which he said he had recently purchased a "Heath/Zenith" branded door bell; it sported the same logos as Heath/Zenith used, but the device had been manufactured in Haiti.
That Heathkit is still in business as a U.S. based firm (at least for now), selling technical education programs, speaks volumes for the integrity of the company. It just goes to show, you can't keep a good company down.