How many here built kits in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's? :?: :mrgreen:

[livewireless123]

My first kit was a 2 transistor radio from Relda-Radio from an advert in what
might have been the Eagle comic. It did work and picked up the BBC north
home service, right across the band! After that came an HAC single valve short waver. I still remember hearing WRUL, new York.on it.A few years ago I dug out the LD210 triode and a few other bits from the junk box and rebuilt it.
Later on, not a kit as such, my dad paid ten bob (50P) to a pal at his works in Trafford Park for a wartime civvy rx This must have been tweaked as as I started hearing top-band hams at the hf end. so the bug bit and the rest is history.

[FrankB]

I must have built 10 or more kits, mostly Heathkit Test equipment. I fondly remember building the TT1A tube tester the most. I still have and use it. Also several projects from magazines, including a 180 KC transmitter. (License free band here in the States very low power permitted.).
The worst one was the Heathkit Dot-Bar generator. It never has worked properly, even with all the replacement parts Heath sent me free to "fix" it.

[raditechman]

The only kit radio I built was a Roamer 7 transistor radio. Sold by Radio Exchange. I still have it and it still works.
John

[electronicskip]

Oh yes I certainly built kits from the 70's which was my era. I can't recall the numbers but I know I got them from Tandy and they were small radio kits.

[Reelman]

I certainly remember building some Tandy kits. Probably bought them when they were reduced in the monthly sale. There was an FM receiver and separate stereo decoder built on small square circuit boards. I wish the decoder kit was still available…
Always wanted the 6 transistor superhet kit with case, courtesy of eBay I finally managed to find one, as yet unbuilt. In real terms much more expensive the the ubiquitous Chinese ones we have today but I bet it works.

Peter

[G6Tanuki]

I will admit to having lusted after a Heathkit 1680 - https://www.rigpix.com/heathkit/hr1680.htm - in my student days.

But bought an AR88 instead!

[Herald1360]

I built a couple of Roamer 7's sometime on the '60's for myself and my brother. As others have said, horrible things with misleading statements like "airspaced ganged tuning condenser" in the adverts. Yes it was, but one of the first instructions in the assembly was to connect them in parallel. Exit all idea of its being a superhet! Both worked OKish, though his was somewhat annoyingly better than mine.

A later build of an "Elegant Seven" was much more satisfactory. That set, with a homebrewed mains PSU in the bottom of the case did many years duty as my parents' kitchen radio.

Pretty much everything else was scratch built from published circuits.

The first set I ever built was a one transistor amplified crystal set- a Gilbert Davey offering in Boys Own Paper, Nov '63.

[sandy_r]

When i was a nipper, in the 50s, my dad built me a 3 transistor kit from Concord (?) Electronics, Hove, as an upgrade from my 'rocket' crystal set. A few years later, i 'assisted' him in building me a Roamer Six, which worked well on MW, LW and ...Trawler Band (yay!)
As i grew older, and learnt to wield his ex-Naval soldering iron (like a prop out of Flash Gordon), i returned the favour and constructed a few Sinclar kits - ZX81 for my dad, a Black Watch for my mum, and a Scientific Calculator for myself (still owned, still working)
In my teens, and into music, i built a Bailey 30 Watt Amplifier kit (Wireless World) for my Bass guitar
Happy days!

[Malcolm T]

Last kit I built was a bat detector several years ago. It's fascinating hearing what's out there beyond human hearing.