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My brother's do-it-yourself hi-fi. From Top: tweeter, woofer, Webcor portable phonograph, Heathkit amplifier. One of his high school buddies assembled the Heathkit for him. He took this in the upstairs bedroom we shared until a year or so later. That's my bed on the right. Check out our cool wallpaper. View full size.
For one Christmas in the early 60's my folks got me a Heathkit shortwave receiver kit. This was back when FM was still unheard of I think. Dad and I spent about an hour or two each night for what seemed forever building it. We had built an oscilloscope prior to that. I don't ever recall what we used the scope for though it stayed with the family for decades and finally found a dumpster just after Dad's passing in 2000. The radio was fantastic though. We strung a 50 foot antenna across the back yard and I remember listening to WLS (I think that was it) in Chicago at night. I used that receiver right up till I went in the army in 73.
[Wouldn't that be AM, not shortwave? As for FM broadcasting, there were hundreds of FM stations by the early 1950s. - Dave]
My father and I built 4 Heathkit televisions and numerous other kits. With a kit that large it took a bit of determination to troubleshoot a problem but Heathkit provided good tech support and if necessary would repair/build your kit if you had problems.
My dad built a Heathkit television, he started in the mid/late 70's. I'm pretty sure he never really finished it. I don't wish to knock Heathkit because it never really worked, but that could be because of Dad's skills.
Iit did work for a while, but not for long. At one point Dad decided it needed a remote control, so he built one.
Using an incredibly long highway of that rainbow wire strip, attached to a black plastic box with a metal face. It had two buttons, using that labeling tape - ON and the other OFF.
When I was 10 I thought it was pretty spiffy, really.
I can't begin to count how many Heathkits and Knight-Kits I built over the years. It's another lost art -- no one builds kits anymore. Electronic parts are so tiny these days you can barely see them, much less handle them. It's all done by machines.
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