Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

I wonder how many here started in the Radio Electronics buisness due to the Philips Kits?. I got an EE8 Christmas 1964 when I was 8 as a result of showing unnatural interest in the TV chucked out into the Dutch barn after it caught fire at my grandparent house. By the time I got the A20 for my birthday in 1965 my fate was sealed. I have over the last couple of years collected a few of these Kits in various states and have re built some of the projects.

I was frankly amazed how well the Radios worked I cannot remember them working so well when I was a lad (maybe they didn't). I did wipe out quite a few 3 legged fuses (a Jon phrase!). As a result of replacement transistors being obtained from a St Ives Radio shop (Right next to the bus station) I was also rewarded with bits of Radio and TV. It was a downward slope from then on.
Fortunately my parents are not to ashamed!

Like to hear from other Forum members who had the EE8, A20, EE20 or the earlier or later Philips kits

Mike T

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

I certainly had an EE kit in the late 60s, though I can't remember the kit number. I know a very large number of forum members now in their 50s owned these kits.

I remember having lots of fun with the intercom project.

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

I fondly remember using the intercom to listen to the Radio in the Kitchen when I was 12 or so in my bedroom. But as it was a portable Radio (Perdio Town and Country) I could have just moved the Radio and saved my batterys!:-] I am sure there was some logic.... Maybe not:thumbsup:
Mike T

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Yes, I started with a Philips kit. I forget which model number, but I think it was a basic kit plus an add-on. After building the three transistor version of the radio I wound a new coil so I could listen to the trawler band instead of MW.

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

I did have a Philips X40 Radionic kit. The radio projects worked ok, but I had much more fun with astable multivibrators, driving lights and speakers. The three legged fuses in my kit would always fail short circuit though.
http://ee.old.no/radionic/

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Yes Christmas 1964 I received the Phillips Electronic Engineering kit and then I was hooked.I will never forget the joy of hearing the first station on the radio I assembled.
The manual was of excellent quality I remember. It did not take me long to blow up the AF117 , 5 shillings to replace from the local Radio Shop.
I also remember taking the kit around to my mate's house , I never forget his mother running in from the kitchen screeching because it was causing interference to her hearing aid.

Mike

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

I had the EE1003 Philips Electronic Engineers kit in the early 70's. There was an extension kit an EE1005 I think, and a separate Mechanical Engineers kit which added motors and wheels etc. I just kept the base 1003 kit. Most of the projects worked OK.

The only thing I have left of it is the instruction book and the baseboard. Which served for many years as a breadboard for all sorts of electronic projects not related to the Philips kit.

Regards

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

I don't think I wiped to many AF117's but I think it was the AC126 that caused me most grief. I took the most most excellent manual at face value and "tried a few things" of my own. My pocket money was 2/6 so if one of the fuses went I had to collect bottles on Carbis Bay beach (in the summer) Corona bottles had a deposit think it was 3d so 20 bottles equaled an AC126 + a few extra bits thrown in to keep me keen!:thumbsup:

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

I started with one of these kits... plus I had the extension kit which allowed me to make the electonic organ if I recall.

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Which make were the green ones about 10" by 6" with a leaf spring brass morse key at the left and coiled spring connectors? I think they had about enough components to make an oscillator and a crystal set. The single AA cell was mounted at the top towards the rear. They were sloped at the front in a console type fashion. I still have one from my early days. I bought a couple of more complicated ones from a car boot sale and was surprised to find the components still working. I presume the kids quickly became bored with them so they never really got to the stage of creating their own experiments and burning components out by trying reverse connections etc. My lads played with them for an afternoon or so but never really took to it...
Alan.

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Yes I had one of these for Christmas 1965 so I would have been just 13. The first project I built was the two transistor radio (AF116 and AC126) which fed a crystal earphone. It worked really well and one of the first songs I heard on it was The Beatles 'We Can Work It Out'. Even now every time I hear that record it reminds me of that first successful project.

There was no doubt in my mind that this would be a hobby for life (and a life of a service engineer later on). It's amazing that 45 years have passed since.

SB

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

My dad got me one of these sometime in the second half of the 60's when I would've been what we now call 'pre-teen' - I still remember it fondly. He was a professional electronics engineer so there were hundreds of times as many components poking out of various boxes stacked around the house. I'm not sure now whether he bought the kit to get me over the early hurdles of soldering and circuit design (which it did) or whether he just hoped it would keep me away from his stuff (which it didn't ;D). I was bitten by the hobby through my teenage years but then there was a 20-30 year hiatus when I was distracted by girls, beer, university and work (which did involve a sort of extreme electronics). I'm back to it now though ...

Cheers,

GJ

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

EE1005 gave me much fun in the early 70's.
Those BC148'S were a bit prone on those small pcb's though.

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Interesting. There was no soldering with my EE kit. Sort of spring terminals.

SB

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Er.... isn't that exactly the point? Or possibly avoid the hurdle of soldering and designing circuits.

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Possibly you're referring to the 'Science Fair' kits sold in Tandy shops.

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Sorry, Chris is right, the springs got me round the soldering hurdle not over it.

Cheers,

GJ

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Me too....I recall mother attempting a rendition of The Blue Danube Waltz on it but as you couldn't play more than one note at a time she wasn't too impressed.

I've seen two or three of these kits at general auctions recently and whilst I enjoyed a nostalgic wallow on opening the boxes I wasn't tempted to bid.

Alvin

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

and me as well. I was given an EE20 for Christmas sometime in the mid 60's (before 67 anyway) and have never looked back. Mind you I never looked at the half of the manual that explained the theory either!

Hugh

Re: Philips Electronic Engineer Kits Starter for You?
 

Hi,
I owned a Philips EE1003 electronics kit when I was around 13 years old which dissapeared as the result of a house move, some years later I found one at a car boot sale for the princeley sum of £3 and snapped it up, it is still in my possesion. Recently, when bored one evening, I constructed one of the AM radios.
My "car boot" kit did not have the original instruction book but an interent search found one (and many others) here

I don't think that the kit was a "starter" for me, as I had been messing around with old radios and suchlike for some time before that, but it certainly helped!

Andrew