Blast from the past

[John Rumm]

Heathkit is launching their first new kit in 30 years:

"We have opened advance orders for our newest product, the HM-1002 Heathkit® Precision RF Meter?, for our most loyal customers and fans. This is the first amateur radio accessory and the first test equipment kit Heathkit has produced in over 30 years.

We believe the Heathkit® Precision RF Meter? is a landmark achievement in RF meters, in both technical features and price/performance. It is most suitable for amateur radio operators and for customers who use RF test equipment.

Its patent-pending design offers features not available in other power/SWR meters: Transmit frequency display, ERP display, efficiency measurement, many forms of peak power monitoring, smart alerting, both SWR and Return Loss, user-selected units (e.g. watts or dBm), autoranging for both power and frequency, QRP and QRO, superior ergonomics, and more. It's about five times more accurate than our previous power/SWR meters, at an affordable price and exceptional quality. And it's a Heathkit"

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Interesting. Still have their valve voltmeter lying around somewhere. Must be getting on for 50 years old.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

well the Heathkit six digit led digital clock I built in the mid 70's still works albeit with the trademark flicker on one digit...like that from new ......

[Chris Hogg]

+1 except that one entire two-digit Beckman display unit failed, so it no longer displays seconds. But the rest of it has been going continuously since it was built, as you say, mid 1970's.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

yes quality items well built by us...

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

shit that looks just like the old one!

[Max Demian]

I don't believe the time it's showing, though...

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

does that when it loses power...very annoying

[Brian Gaff]

Yes, I built a Mohican and a later short wave radio of theirs back many moons ago. Very well made but the former had a design issue of a springy front panel that made tuning a bit of a challenge and an internal speaker that caused audio feedback to the tuning capacitor. The later short wave set was better but the plastic front panel and its dial string assembly was pretty rubbish and it fell to bits quite soon even in ordinary use. So their electronics and assembly instructions are normally good but often let down by the mechanics.

I had no idea anyone was still running the company. Back in my day it was run by a company called Daystrom. Brian

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

[Harry Bloomfield]

Chris Hogg expressed precisely :

I built one, which I threw away around 5 years ago and still working. As I recall, I devised a little circuit which allowed it to keep time, even when mains power was lost. Something involving a 32k watch crystal, divided down to 50Hz all powered by a PP3.

[whisky-dave]

Is this really what people want nowadays ?

[spuorgelgoog]

Of course. And I bet lots of the people buying it don't have a ham transmit ter, but the "Afro-Asian Padauk, hand-milled and rubbed with a special seal ing finish" will colour co-ordinate with their bedside bottles of organic q uinoa extract moisturising beard oil.

Owain

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

yes it counts the mains frequency ......