Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

[OldTechFan96]

What thoughts and experiences do members here have of Heathkit test equipment?

I am wondering this because I have seen adverts and construction manuals from Heathkit that suggests they are lab quality instruments.

Has anybody known a service depot do be kitted out solely with Heathkit gear?

[Bazz4CQJ]

Absolutely not lab grade, except school lab maybe. Most of it was very squarely aimed at amateur use, and even there it often failed to make the grade. In the US, many amateurs referred to it as "Grief Kit".

B

[MeerKat]

I built an IO-18U oscilloscope many moons ago and great for home use but definitely not laboratory grade.

[wd40addict]

Aimed squarely at the hobbiest / ham / schools / colleges market. But used within its limits it works well. I have a lot of Heathkit test gear. The above markets did not have the budget for Marconi, HP etc.

I have seen an advert for Heathkit targeting more professional markets effectively saying you could have a cheap second unit which could be used when the big expensive gear is tied up. It's worth noting that when A W Wayne of Shirley labs reviewed the Harmonic distortion meter for HFN he preferred it to his expensive Marconi. He doesn't actually state it's the Marconi, but there are enough clues in the text.

[CambridgeWorks]

Quite collectable now, hence prices have increased. Especially some scarce items.
I just have a rather elaborate transistor tester made by them.
Rob

[lesmw0sec]

Back in the 60's I built one of their scopes and an LCR bridge. Both performed very well.

[Terry_VK5TM]

The other thing to remember is that Heathkit gear wasn't "built to a spec" but were designed around available surplus components.

[Dave Moll]

Among the Heathkits that I built in my youth was a valve oscilliscope, which I suppose I would describe as adequate for my hobbyist purposes but certainly nothing special.

One thing I would say for them, the assembly instructions were very explicit - to the extent that when I came to construct a Manor Supplies television pattern generator from a kit, it came as a bit of a culture shock - though this was successfully built and was still working last time I powered it up.

[vidjoman]

I built several different types back in the early 60’s and all worked well. Simple to follow instructions and made from reasonable quality components, certainly not surplus bits. I had an opportunity to check them against more professional gear and the results were very good.
In the UK, as a kit, they were free of purchase tax at the time and therefore considerably cheaper.

[Radio Wrangler]

An overall assessment isn't very helpful. You have to look at each model on its own merits. The oscilloscopes were very crude and not even up to the Nuffield Science schools standard, but the people who built them learned from them. The valve voltmeters and the distortion meter were quite useful, and definitely a cut above the oscilloscopes.

From the educational point of view, the manuals were superbly crafted for the job they had to do, and people without much of a background could assemble their kits. Because of the do this, do that, do this, item by item instructions, I'm not sure how much the average builder learned of how their new toy worked,. It was almost robot-work, but it did build people's confidence to go further.

On the whole, the world was better for having Heathkits. THey also set a standard for other amateur kit firms to aspire to and to be compared against.

David

[ColinTheAmpMan1]

I have a couple of Heathkit items and they all seem to be useful bits of gear. Maybe not up to lab standard, but when do you need that? I have refurbished my V-7AU and AV-3U and they work well. They both have stickers/markings that suggest they were used in professional establishments. I am looking for one of their capacitor checkers at a reasonable price, but they seem to go for silly money, possibly because of the power-factor facility.

Good points:- Nice big meters. If it was factory-made, it can be quite professional inside.
Bad points:- You might get one that some total idiot constructed and needs a lot of work to make it work properly. The knobs were sometimes a bit prone to cracking. The earthing (lack of) and the mains cable-restraints are often rather amateurish.

When I was younger, I used to look longingly at the adverts for their "lab" oscilloscopes, but now...

Colin.

[David G4EBT]

As to whether Heathkit was 'laboratory standard', well no, but more than adequate for hobbyist use and the accuracy was stated in the specs - EG' +/-2% or whatever. I'm not in a lab trying to put rockets into space - I'm just an old buffer in a shed down the garden restoring old radios of little value for my own enjoyment, and to stop my kids putting me in a home so I'm content to use any hobbyist gear even though I'm not strapped for cash.

To quote William of Ockham's 'lex parsimoniae', or "the law of briefness". (AKA 'Occum's razor') William of Ockham wrote in Latin:

'Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem'.

This translates roughly to:

'More things should not be used than are necessary'.

He was clever - that was in the 1300s, and still hold's good today.

Maybe I ought to apply that philosophy to my verbose ramblings and take up less bandwidth - sorry about that.

Some items of Heathkit test gear items I've owned over the years were quite good and where accuracy matters, with hi-stab range resistors as good today as when new. EG:

AV3 Valve millivoltmeter.
V7AU Valve Voltmeter.
MM1 20,000 OPV Multimeter.

Less useful the C3-U Condenser checker,( which these days seem to be bought as donors of the usually 'as new' EM34 magic eye).

The RF1U signal generator still gives a good account of itself, is more than adequate for hobbyist use and one of the most useful pieces of test gear for today's hobbyists. It's neat, compact, functional and quite accurate enough for the needs of hobbyists. If a frequency counter is available, dial accuracy ceases to be an issue. It covers 100kHz to 100 MHz in six ranges, with calibrated harmonics from 100 MHz to 200 MHz as follows:

Range A: 100 kHz – 300 kHz.
Range B: 300 kHz - 1 MHz.
Range C: 1 MHz – 3 MHz.
Range D: 3 MHz – 10 MHz.
Range E: 10 MHz – 30 MHz.
Range F: 30 MHz – 100 MHz.
Calibrated Harmonics – 100 MHz – 200 MHz.
Accuracy, +/- 2% of dial calibration.

Output impedance 75 Ohms.
Voltage: Up to 100mV on all ranges.
Internal modulation approx 400 Hz, 30% depth nominal.
Audio output up to 9 Volts across 1 MegOhm.
Valves:
V1: 12AT7/ECC81 - RF Oscillator.
V2 ECF80 – Modulator and RF output.
Rectification is via a Sentercell selenium rectifier.

Accuracy was assured because the coil unit was factory assembled and aligned, with only one coil needing to be wound for range 'F'. (Four air spaced turns of 22SWG wire). Most years I've found one at a Rally or BVWS events in a neglected state, almost always not working due to failure of the Sentercel selenium rectifier. I enjoy restoring them and moving them on to others who may be in need of one.

It surprises me how many Heathkits were sold - the Daystrom factory in Gloucester was quite a place, yet for many in the UK, myself included, the prices were far outside my range. A 1966 catalogue listed the RF-IU kit priced at £13.18s 0d, the assembled price being £20.8s 0d. When adjusted for inflation this equates to £270 and £397 respectively in 2021. Not a trifling sum.

Like much of Heathkit's stuff, safety standards such as the mains entry point - two core single insulated mains flex tied in a knot as a crude cable restraint - leave much to be desired, maybe because it was initially designed for 110V US mains, or just reflective of lower prevailing standards of the day? Easily rectified.

The build standards of all Heathkit equipment are highly variable depending to some extent on whether factory-built or home-assembled. Sometimes it's neat - other times, just a rat's nest. (I believe that the 'factory built' ones were often 'farmed out' to homeworkers).

The HW7/HW8 and HW9 series of QRP transceivers have given endless enjoyment to amateurs the world over and still do. Modifications and tweaks to improve the performance abound. I had an HW8 for a few years, but it went, along with all my other gear when amateur radio lost its appeal for me.

Some of the receivers weren't up to much. in the past I've owned an RA1, Mohican and a GR78.

It's unrealistic to expect any unrestored Heathkit equipment to work safely if at all, without attending to known safety shortcomings, some due to the passage of time, some due to poor standards of home construction or mistreatment, others due to aging components - Hunts Capacitors, electrolytics, and in particular, Sentercel selenium rectifiers which often feature.

A few pics below to illustrate some of my observations above:

Pic 1: Example of hi-stab range resistors in an MM1 20,000 OPV Multi-meter.
Pic 2: A Sentecel rectifier still in place in an RF1U.
Pic 3: Mains flex safety hazard commonplace on Heathkit equipment. In this instance, an unrestored AV3-U Valve Millivoltmeter. Single insulated two-core flex tied in a knot as a crude cable restraint but free to be twisted about, anchored by two soldered joints close to each other on a tag strip, which could fracture. If the equipment is left plugged in but switched off, wiring inside will be live. It would be safer to have the flex properly restrained and to go direct to the on-off switch. The same applies to other Heathkit equipment.
Pic 4: AV3-U under chassis view, showing Sentercel rectifier, Hunts Mouldseal cap and an electrolytic which looks the worse for wear.
Pic 5: A typical view of 'rat's nest' type wiring, in an RF1-U. Partly due to Heathkit's design, partly due to a bit of untidiness in construction. All the same coloured wiring supplied by Heathkit - no colour coding to show say which is AC mains, AC heaters, HT DC, signal wires etc. Just makes life a bit more difficult when fault tracing. (Note Mouldseal cap still in place).

In conclusion, restoring Heathkit equipment is enjoyable and once restored, it will work as well as it did when new. There is the added advantage of detailed manuals with clear diagrams drawn by skilled draughtsmen in a pre-CAD age, and blow by blow instructions on how to build and commission the equipment.

Some of it has been overtaken by the passage of time. As with Dansettes, it's a nostalgia and 'I want one' thing that dictates prices well beyond their worth. For reasons the elude me, Heathkit signals tracers are in seemingly vogue ju8st now and that reflects in their price. The IT-12 'Aural-Visual' signal tracer is a prime example. One on ebay now - 'buy it now' for $350US (£355GBP). Two valves plus magic eye (redundant bling), to do what could be done for less than £20.00. I don't think so.

Rambling and dribbling again, but I hope it's of interest.

[ColinTheAmpMan1]

Originally Posted by ColinTheAmpMan1

I have a couple of Heathkit items and they all seem to be useful bits of gear. Maybe not up to lab standard, but when do you need that? I have refurbished my V-7AU and AV-3U and they work well. They both have stickers/markings that suggest they were used in professional establishments. I am looking for one of their capacitor checkers at a reasonable price, but they seem to go for silly money, possibly because of the power-factor facility.

Good points:- Nice big meters. If it was factory-made, it can be quite professional inside.
Bad points:- You might get one that some total idiot constructed and needs a lot of work to make it work properly. The knobs were sometimes a bit prone to cracking. The earthing (lack of) and the mains cable-restraints are often rather amateurish.

When I was younger, I used to look longingly at the adverts for their "lab" oscilloscopes, but now...

Colin.

I forgot to mention that the capacitor-checker is an IT-28 or older IT-11. Also, I forgot that US-made versions are equipped with a US mains transformer and use in the UK will necessitate using a step-down transformer. The UK-supplied items had a UK mains transformer, buy I doubt that they are available as replacements, now.
Colin.

[Radio Wrangler]

Single-insulate mains cable (Woolies reading lamp flex) with a knot as strain relief was what we all did back in the day. You have to view these things in terms of the then-current standards. On the whole, the heathkits were a lot better than most homebrew stuff (Maybe G2DAS set the standard for really good homebrew?)

The Heathkit sig gen is pretty much comparable to many of the Advance ones kicking around.

I lusted after a Mohican, but it was well out of my financial reach on 5 bob pocket money.

David

[kalee20]

I've come across a few bits - AF signal generator, sine and square wave, ISTR was quite good, likewise the DX40 transmitter. There was a valve voltmeter - maybe the one referred to above? - with a good-sized meter, and, oddly and inelegantly, a single 1.5V cell inside for something. All were similar construction - formed sheet-metal enclosures, screen-printed panel control labelling, basic but functional.

The manuals were very detailed in terms of build instructions, and parts lists. Excellent documentation.

Whether they represented good value for money, I can't comment. But they certainly seemed popular, and a cut above the other kits.

[regenfreak]

I love my restored Heathkit IP-17 regulated HV and filament variable power supply. It is very useful.

I have a Heathkit Grid dip meter which is ok that I don't find it useful.

I have an unrepairable Heathkit Q-meter that cost me a lot of money.

[CambridgeWorks]

#14, David, did you not mean G2DAF?
Rob

[Trevor]

I have loads of it for the money it was brilliant great products learn as you go each piece had a degree of build in pride Look what I have made
Trev

[wd40addict]

I've never been totally convinced by the RF-1u - see attached picture.

The internal modulation (bottom) is a reasonable sine wave, but the resulting modulation (top) is a bit lop sided.

When I used it to try and line up a receiver IF the peak was at a different point to a Taylor generator with a more textbook envelope.

[usradcoll1]

Originally Posted by Terry_VK5TM

The other thing to remember is that Heathkit gear wasn't "built to a spec" but were designed around available surplus components.

I bought several pieces of Heathkit equipment at swap meets to see what kind of job someone did building them. A lot of them were rather impressive, as far as workmanship.
Most of the equipment, pre 1960, used surplus parts. It was interesting to see what strange valves and other parts they used.
Dave, USradcoll1. Collector of many interesting electronics.