Heathkit - A Short History
Ray Howes G4OWY delves into the history of one of the most iconic manufacturers of amateur radio kits.
Everybody has heard of Heathkit, right? The American company that set the world alight selling electronic kits. If you were into DIY, and soldering irons, this was the place to be. You name it, and Heathkit would probably be advertising it in their extensive catalogue. Including, of course, almost all things amateur radio, basic kits to full-blown HF and VHF transceiver kits. For those that loved to build instead of buy, it was a kit builder’s paradise. Fill your boots, switch on the soldering iron and get building.
Yes, it was a wonderful era. I built several Heathkits. And they all worked first time, except one. In my excitement to get it completed, I discovered that I’d put one of the transistors the wrong way around on one of the circuit boards. I’d love to show you my handy work. Unfortunately, I gave it all away to charitable causes - to two or three mates I recall, who were eager to accept my unbridled generosity.
I liked that green colour that the folks at Heathkit habitually used on most of their products too. I know some people hated it, but it was a good marketing device.
But what was important, rather than what colour paint was used, was the enormous impact that Heathkit had on the then entire amateur radio marketplace. It was transformational. Especially from an economic point of view. It gave those with lesser filled wallets the ability to stock their shacks with rigs and accessories that they could only dream about. Provided, that is, they were prepared to build it themselves. Which they did, in their thousands. Products literally flew out the door. Some of their amateur radio products, such as the SB100 (‘Sugar Baker’) conveniently introduced for Christmas time 1965, for example, were so popular that the company couldn’t keep up with demand. The SB101 and the SB102, the most successful (1967/70. All three were Collins KWM2 lookalikes and a lot cheaper!), were destined to be the last vacuum tube rigs produced by Heathkit, when production ceased in 1976. I was once a proud owner of an SB101 and a HW101, both now long gone. Maybe chopped up for spares? Or risen from the ashes?
Hi-Fi too
And Heathkit didn’t forget the Hi-Fi aficionados out there either. Nor those who wanted to build test gear, maybe to fault-find their pride and joy kit (their mainstay business in many respects, in the early days). Wattmeters, Line Voltage Monitors, Deviation Meters, PSUs, Impedance Meters, Field Strength Meters, Station Monitor Scopes and so on. As well as Digital Weather Stations, Clocks, and linear amplifiers, one of which was named after a North American Indian tribe, the Chippewa (other Heath products featured Shawnee and Pawnee). Perhaps Yaesu, Icom or Kenwood should name one of their rigs after a North American Indian tribe? How about Cherokee? “The rig this end is a Yaesu Cherokee”.
Sounds much better than “the rig here is an FTdx101MP”.
Early Days
The company that would one day become famously known worldwide as Heathkit began way back in the roaring twenties, making aircraft kits. Edward Bayard Heath, the founder, and whose surname would inauspiciously become synonymous with all things amateur radio kit-wise, unfortunately lost his life during a test flight in 1931. Four years later, an astute engineer named Howard Anthony bought Edward Heath’s company at auction. At the close of WWII Howard got a eureka moment that would be the beginnings of a lucrative kit building business. He’d bought a large quantity of war surplus electronic equipment. Exactly how much is still open to question. However, Howard’s theory was bang on, that many people even without much technical knowledge could probably put together
a kit of parts and save themselves a pile of cash in the bargain.
Early ads though, listed various components and military receivers and transmitters. Not kits. Just yet. So, with his vast stock of electronic inventory and an eye on the cash register, come 1947 (incidentally, the year of my birth), Howard Anthony advertised his first kit, a five-inch oscilloscope. Price, $39.50. Luckily, he hit the jackpot (Howard had already purchased a huge number of five-inch CRTs). One magazine ad produced thousands of orders! The Heath company was on a roll. Then fate struck a mortal blow. Howard, like Edward Heath was killed in an aircraft crash, in 1954.
Sale to Daystrom
In the interim, Howard’s grieving wife had taken over the reins of the company. However, during 1958, she made the decision to sell it to Daystrom, a holding company that owned some other electronics companies. Daystrom, would be bought by Schlumberger (because Heathkit was then, a major buyer of semiconductors from a company called Fairchild, so Schlumberger thought if it acquired Fairchild too, it would control both ends of the supply route. It didn’t happen). Subsequently, Heathkit was acquired by Zenith Radio Corporation from Schlumberger during 1979 (primarily, as Zenith had seen the upcoming rise of PCs and viewed Heathkit as a convenient opportunity to exploit Heathkit’s expertise - Heath had previously brought out the H89, a part-kit computer that went out the doors as fast as they could manufacture them). The 1970s propelled Heathkit into the world of TVs, computers, audio equipment and Heathkit Educational Systems and expanded their operations into the digital realm.
Back to 1948 and into Amateur Radio
Anyway, not surprisingly, as a result of the explosive popularity of the five-inch oscilloscope, 1948 would see an exponential demand for Heathkit’s test equipment. Subsequently, all sorts of test equipment kits were pouring out of the factory gates. And, of course, the main reason why Heath’s test gear was so ridiculously popular (particularly Heathkit valve tube volt meters, VTVMs) was the fact that it was cheap compared with factory-built stuff. Many budding radio enthusiasts probably cemented their dreams of one
day becoming a fully functioning amateur radio operator simply by buying into the Heathkit philosophy of learning by building it yourself. Buying an actual transceiver kit was still a while away though.
Come 1948, the K1 and K2 receiver popped up and a CW 80 metre transmitter. Fast forward to1952, an idea for a novice class amateur licence was being kicked about by the FCC. Howard got wind of it and was convinced that if the idea of a novice licence got off the ground, it could bring forth a future revenue stream. So, the then chief of engineering, Gene Fiebich, was told to go find a radio amateur to hire. That amateur would be Robert Mace. Later, allegedly poached by Leo Meyerson W0GFQ? He of World Radio Laboratories.
Introduced in time for Christmas 1952, Heathkit’s first major inroad into amateur radio was the AT1, a six-band CW transmitter. Robert Mace masterminded the introduction of the AT1 - a marketing strategy to beat the competition price-wise. Mace also knew that Heathkit had piles of war surplus stock all ready to go to turn into lots of transmitters and profit. Although not a huge seller, it would set the dye for Heathkit to be the go to company for low-cost amateur radio kits and be the catalyst that would propel Heathkit into a remarkable amateur radio folklore. Mace was convinced that he could repeat another coup. Again, the same strategy to undercut the then competition (the Johnson Viking II) appeared in the guise of the DX-100 AM/CW kit transmitter (the DX-20 replaced the AT-1, then came the HX-11). But unlike the Viking II, the DX-100 sported a funky VFO. However, the gestation of the DX-100 was not an easy one. But this rig was a huge seller. Then along came a DX-35/ DX-40/DX-60 and so on.
Its development coincided with the demise of Howard Anthony during 1954. Heath was sold to Daystrom for around 1.8 million dollars (which they quickly recovered plus some!). Luckily, Daystrom knew a good thing when they saw it, so they pumped a load of cash into R&D and not only that, moved Heathkit to a new bigger factory location during 1956. Business perked up by leaps and bounds.
The Search for a Receiver
Trouble was, Heathkit needed a receiver. Then, amateur band receivers were not cheap! So, Mace, the chief engineer got cracking on design. Enter the RX-1 (1958) Mohawk in what would be the beginning of the Heathkit ‘Green Boxes’. The RX-1 front end tuned assembly was farmed out for pre-assembly, primarily to make it viable for kit construction. Besides, Heathkit’s marketing mantra was that anyone could put together their kits without any previous electronic knowhow, including a complicated receiver. Next, the TX-1 Apache (1958) appeared, almost a match to the RX1. A sideband adapter, SB10 mated up with the TX-1. Al Robertson joined the Heath gang during 1957 and was responsible not only for building a similar box to match the RX-1, but also shoe-horning the existing RX-1 VFO linkage mechanism into the TX-1. Knobs had to match!
Not only did the RX-1 and TX-1 meet with rapturous raves from their army of Heathkit devotees, Heath splashed out big money on several pages of QST promoting them. These rigs would cement Heathkit’s future in the amateur radio world, and would also start an era in which the company would dominate the marketplace with an ever expanding output of innovative amateur radio classics for a couple of decades or more. An ocean of ‘green boxes’ would make Heathkit an almost unstoppable force.
Meeting Collins Head-On
Come late 1958, Collins Radio announced the 75S-1 receiver. A momentous event. Because it was small in size and didn’t weigh a ton! Although it did cost an arm and a leg to buy. This rig pointed to the future and its arrival didn’t go unnoticed at Heathkit. Enter Joe Shafer, a 26-year-old engineering whizz-kid. Together with Al Robertson, they embarked on a mission to compete with Collins equipment and manufacture a look-alike line that would sell for much less money. It seemed that if the tech gurus at Heathkit could get it right, they’d hit the amateur radio market bullseye. They did. In the meantime, the heavy crew kept coming. The HW-20 2m rig, the ‘lunch-box’ specials, GC-1 ‘Mohican’ and Heathkit’s first SSB rig. And that weird but very profitable HN-31 ‘Cantenna’ thing. Courtesy of whizz-kid Shafer and Al Robertson.
Work had begun on a clandestine project. Again, the VFO (renamed an ‘LMO’. Local Master Oscillator) had to be a preassembled sealed unit (the race was on to emulate a Collins PTO and crystal filter). After much blood sweat and tears, and again, a pre-assembled aligned VFO, the ‘SB’ series was about to hit the headlines. The priority was to make a Collins look-alike but at a third of the price. Come October 1963, the SB-300, looking remarkably like a Collins 75S-1, went gangbusters, everyone wanted one. For the following decade, Heathkit hit pay dirt. The SB-400 transmitter followed along with a linear amplifier and an SB-301/401. Collins had introduced the KWM-2A in 1961. Four years later, the SB-100 five-band transceiver arrived in late 1965. A dead ringer for the ultra-expen
sive Collins rig. It became a huge seller. Next, the SB-101 with a CW filter. During 1968, a 2m rig the HW-17 arrived. Then, an HW-2026/A in 1977. And the HW-202.
Enter the ‘Hot Water’ 100, March 1968. Probably, the most successful HF rig of all time. And advertised as such. 1970 arrived and brought forth the 2kW SB-220 linear amplifier powered by two Eimac 3-500’s. This thing could run all day at full whack. The same year, just in time for Christmas, the HW101 appeared. Again, it went out the door like gold ingots being sold at copper ingots prices. Apparently, about 3000 units a year for 13 years! However, the Heathkit ‘Hot Water’ rigs were destined to be the last rigs using valves. Transistors were the ‘new valves’. Not only that, Heathkit had to up the stakes and embrace the new way of doing things or be left behind. Plus, the Japanese rig manufacturers were bringing solid-state products to market at far less cost with more bells and whistles. And, they were ready built and ready to go.
So, to Solid-State
Heathkit got busy with solid-state. The SB303 all transistor receiver arrived during 1970. Then, an SB310/SB313 and a SW-717/SW7800 solid-state receiver. Spinning to 1973 or so, a Lone Ranger type figure appears on the scene courtesy of a nasty debacle at Collins Radio and its subsequent buy-out by Rockwell International. The fallout left many employees disgruntled. One of whom was
Mike Elliot. Hired immediately by Heathkit, Elliot’s engineering prowess would be instrumental in bringing Heathkit’s first all solidstate transceiver to market. The SB-104 was released in 1974. An SB-104A was released in 1977. Primarily, to overcome various internal problems that had plagued the SB-104 HF transceiver. It wasn’t destined to be a big money-spinner.
1978 (the HW8 came out) ushered in computer technology and Heathkit stepped up to the plate. The H8/H11 ‘computer’ arrived in kit-form. They sold well. However, a replacement for the hobbled SB-104 was in the works. Labelled the SS-8000 and computer controlled. Then along came the SS-9000 in 1982 (it gets rave reviews today, and was once a competitor for the Collins KWM380). And the HW-5400, the last kit build. Both rigs were quickly kicked out of the amateur market - too expensive compared with Icom and Yaesu, etc. The writing was on the wall, and several of Heath’s best engineers baled out, not liking the lay-offs and that the management had blown cool on amateur radio - it was QRT time.
QRTTime
It was time to shut up the amateur radio store. Heathkit soldiered on collaborating with Yaesu and Standard putting a Heathkit badge on their amateur radio products. Meanwhile, Zenith Corporation (the parent company) was mired in financial problems, as a result of the intense competition in the personal computer manufacturing business. It sold off Heath to a French data processing company Groupe Bull during 1989. Then it got messy. In 1995, Groupe Bull sold Heathkit to an outfit based in Miami, Florida - H.I.G (a private equity company). In 1998, DESA International bought the Heathkit name. That went bankrupt and H.I.G bought it back in 2002. 2007, Duchossois Group Inc bought Heath/Zenith from H.I.G. That could have changed now? But guess what, Heathkit are still in the business of selling kits. Yippee! Log on to their website: www.Heathkit.com
As they point out on their website, news of their demise is greatly exaggerated. And if you require a Heathkit construction manual, this is the place to be.
In passing, I should mention that most Heathkit products went through a ‘proof build’ stage. Whereupon, several employees would be selected to build the kits to test whether a kit went together without any problems. If so, the kit would go into production and into the Heath catalogue. Ditto, the manuals would undergo a proof build review. Buildability was the essential key to ensure customer success and profitability.
Whether an old style Heathkit company could ever pop up again and thrill us all with a product that has become legendary in amateur radio folklore, selling SB-200s and the like, is probably beyond hope. But don’t fret. All is not lost. Okay, it’s not Heathkit of yesteryear, but kit building is still alive and well. Some brave people still want to roll up their sleeves, heat up the soldering station and get going stuffing a circuit board with tiny components. It seems then, that the Heathkit ‘Green-Machine’ philosophy is showing no sign of abating any time soon. Lastly, a few enterprising souls, call them brave or what, are totally disassembling dead or alive Heathkits and putting everything back together again all shiny bright and new. Long may it continue, eh? The end...
(With thanks to Steve G3ZPS for the photos, all taken from from his website)
Further Reading www.g3zps.com/Heathkit.html https://wa7zze.com