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Vintage Test Gear and Workshop Equipment For discussions about vintage test gear and workshop equipment such as coil winders.

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Old 5th Feb 2021, 5:11 pm   #61
TonyDuell
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

Getting back to Heathkit, there are 2 specific dislikes I have :

Firstly their 'scopes, at least the ones I've seen, had AC coupled Y amplifiers. They do not go down to DC. That makes them useless for a lot of work I do. To be fair a lot of the 'amateur' scopes of the time were similar, but...

Secondly the units are hard to service once assembled. PCBs are hard-wired in place with other things mounted around them. Often you essentially have to reverse the assembly instructions, desoldering wires as you go to get to parts.
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Old 6th Feb 2021, 2:04 pm   #62
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

Hi!

One of the most challenging Heathkit Projects from my Heathkit Collection is the HFW–1 Sweep RF Generator that will need a total rebuild from scratch due to many assembly mistakes – I'm hoping the original "builder" hasn't wrecked the special controlled inductor ("Incrediuctor!" the advertising blurb called it!) otherwise that'll mean a friendly chat with Ed! – full of brown Hunts "Mouldseals" underneath and every one will have to be thrown out!

Thankfully I managed to find a pdf of the original assembly manual complete!

Incidentally, to anyone restoring chassis–built equipment, it's well worth buying a roll of 1 mm ptfe sleeving for component lead out wires – it doesn't melt off the lead when you solder the tags the components connect to!

Braided or varnished cotton sleeving was very useful as well as this also doesn't peel off a hot component lead during soldering operations but I'm not sure whether you can still buy it these days!

Chris Williams
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Old 6th Feb 2021, 4:22 pm   #63
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

Oh I like this thread. I am drawn to Heathkit stuff like a lunatic and have owned probably 30 items over the years. Unfortunately nearly all of the stuff I’ve had is poorly constructed or knackered by the end user. The joy of it is that it’s fairly well documented, mostly easy to decipher if it isn’t and most of the parts aren’t too difficult to locate. So it usually survives. As for performance it’s usually exactly the correct compromise between professional kit and being cheap.

But some real criminals are out there on the construction side of things. The worst being the Heathkit factory builds which were mostly terrible!

Typical example of how you can un-knacker stuff creatively here: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=136242

Can’t believe that was nearly 4 years ago now
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Old 6th Feb 2021, 6:15 pm   #64
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
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
It seemed like a lot of us lusted after a Mohican when we were just starting this radio hobby and yes, it was beyond our reach as well.
I picked on up at a ham radio swap meet several years later. Mine is equipped with the optional AC adaptor. The build quality is really good.
After looking it over, I thought it was not really worth getting excited about.
I still like valve based equipment better.
Another Dave or David, as you please, USradcoll1
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Old 10th Feb 2021, 4:40 pm   #65
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

David[/QUOTE]
It seemed like a lot of us lusted after a Mohican when we were just starting this radio hobby and yes, it was beyond our reach as well.
I picked on up at a ham radio swap meet several years later. Mine is equipped with the optional AC adaptor. The build quality is really good.
After looking it over, I thought it was not really worth getting excited about.
I still like valve based equipment better.
Another Dave or David, as you please, USradcoll1 [/QUOTE]

I acquired one of these recently with the mains option - I recapped the audio and power sections with new electrolytics (although I missed one hiding behind something) but left the rest alone, apart from a squirt of contact cleaner in various places/switches. With a 10 foot length of wire it was OK but not startling.
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Old 10th Feb 2021, 4:51 pm   #66
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Originally Posted by wd40addict View Post
Avocollector, I have an unbuilt IT-12 signal tracer. One day I will build it and reduce its value to 10% of what it is at the moment!
I know (worth more as the unbuilt kit) but just cannot help myself. In the interim I have their built up VTM (7-U??) which is driving me bonkers with a fault (will not balance) despite just about rebuilding the whole darned thing/replacing valves etc etc. To add insult to injury all the meter readings (on valve pins etc) are in the correct range.
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Old 10th Feb 2021, 5:10 pm   #67
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David G4EBT View Post


I guess I'm a product of my time. My formative years was a life based on mottos, sternly dispensed by our 'elders and betters' - 'cut your suit according to your cloth, make do and mend, waste not want not, 'I want' doesn't get, a fool and his money are soon parted, don't make a rod for your own back' and so on, ad infinitum. As a kid, you think it goes in one ear and out of the other, but it doesn't - it lodges in the deep recesses of your mind.

The downside is that it creates a mindset which may lead to me spend a fruitless morning to strip down a faulty 20 year old toaster which I could replace for under £20 from Tesco. Then when I conclude that it's irreparable, saving the screws and the flex 'in case they'll come in useful, (like the elastic bands that the postmen drop on the pavements).
I had the same upbringing but in stuff I'm interested in it never rang a bell/affected my outlook. More the lack of money as a kid for several hobbies ingrained the habit of saving everything that might be useful in future times - even if half the time you cannot find it later!!

I feel though that stripping something down and finding it's unrepairable is more emotionally satisfying than simply going out to replace it. Of course one would like it to be fixable cheaply but not everything turns out that way - however if nothing else you have learnt how that particular item comes apart for the next or similar item. And if things have been damaged in the dissembly (always that one screw hiding somewhere or clip that snaps off ) but it's unrepairable anyway then it does not feel quite so bad.

Anyway many thanks to david for posting his material on the RF sig gen - think it will be a great help for one I've got somewhere. if only I can locate it
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Old 10th Feb 2021, 7:28 pm   #68
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

Avocollector

It is just possible that your V7A-U that won't balance needs to be put in an airing cupboard to dry out the paxolin circuit board. My one improved after drying it out.

Ron
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Old 12th Feb 2021, 3:24 pm   #69
avocollector
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Originally Posted by ronbryan View Post
Avocollector

It is just possible that your V7A-U that won't balance needs to be put in an airing cupboard to dry out the paxolin circuit board. My one improved after drying it out.

Ron
That's a great suggestion - many thanks for it. Getting to the stage where a total rebuild was looking like the only solution.
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Old 14th Feb 2021, 11:49 am   #70
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

I had a problem many moons ago with achieving a balance on a V7A. The balance varied significantly across several samples of 12AU7 valves I had available, some were more unbalanced than others.

The fix was to tweak the values of the cathode resistors of the 12AU7.

Note that on the V7A, the balance control allows zero setting to be either in the normal place on the left hand end of the scale, or centre scale (useful on equipment with both positive and negative rails), so left hand zero does not occur with the control at mid position.

Stuart
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Old 14th Feb 2021, 7:26 pm   #71
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stuarth View Post
I had a problem many moons ago with achieving a balance on a V7A. The balance varied significantly across several samples of 12AU7 valves I had available, some were more unbalanced than others.

The fix was to tweak the values of the cathode resistors of the 12AU7.

Note that on the V7A, the balance control allows zero setting to be either in the normal place on the left hand end of the scale, or centre scale (useful on equipment with both positive and negative rails), so left hand zero does not occur with the control at mid position.

Stuart
The VTVM's I have experience with, usually were furnished with a Mullard ECC82/12AU7 for that application. There must've been a good reason!
I still have the Allied Knight-kit VTVM I built in 1962 and it still works perfect! I haven't used it in ages since digital meters became popular!
Dave, USradcoll1. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!
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Old 23rd Feb 2021, 1:21 pm   #72
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

There is a two-page retrospective review article on the Heathkit IB-101 frequency counter in the latest QST issue, March 2021. It's a reprint from May '71.

David
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Old 15th Mar 2021, 9:09 pm   #73
Ed_Dinning
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

Hi Folks, just to add my thoughts on Heathkit.
I had an output transformer for an MA12 amp to rewind. It used a pair of EL84's in UL mode on a 1 3/3" stack of No29 lams, Unisil material. It was a good design and well made; interleaved pri and sec and the lam stack for output watts was generous.
Hopefully when repaired it should sound very good. It looked like a well made product

Ed
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Old 16th Mar 2021, 10:12 am   #74
wd40addict
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Default Re: Thoughts on Heathkit Equipment?

The 'kit' bit of the name tends to make people look down on their equipment, but they understood their target markets.

The UK Hi-Fi equipment was designed when George Tillet was chief engineer and a lot of it diverges significantly from the US parent. He was heavily involved in the 50s British Hi-Fi scene and presumably wanted something good enough to compete with Leak etc.

More here: https://www.gammaelectronics.xyz/aud...1983_coda.html

I do have to say though that the USP-1 pre-pre-amp is a slightly odd beast.
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