Heathkit HW8

Some years ago I owned an HW8 transceiver. It worked very well and I managed several DX contacts. Working stations with a very modest wire antenna was remarkably easy. I know QRP CW is not for everyone, but I was surprised.

In recent years Heathkit is making a comeback. I hope this is successful.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8 .

Heathkit Lunchboxes

These simple rigs for 10m, 6m or 2m were kits sold by Heathkit mainly in the 1960s. The limitation was the super-regen RX. I liked the styling and simplicity: no memories, AM only and just one crystalled channel on TX. It has long been my aim to make a modern version with similar styling.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/lunchbox .

Heathkits

The resurrected Heathkit company has launched a dual band antenna.  As much as I want them to succeed is this the best they can do?

They absolutely have to produce decent kits at decent prices or they will not survive. Their offerings so far do not exactly set the world alight. No, the offerings so far have not excited me. Years ago I started out with a Heathkit  Electronics Workshop. Years later I had an HW8 which gave me loads of contacts with small wire antennas.

Please, think of your potential customer base, think about prices, and look at your competitors. I have no doubt a few loyal USA customers will support you, but far far more is needed in the competitive world of the 21st century.

Heathkit comeback?

There is a very mixed review of the new Heathkit kit (the GR-150) on http://www.amateurradio.com/ today. Although I admire the attempts to resurrect Heathkit, they have to have excellent quality control, competitive prices and good kits. Selling anything else is not a recipe for success. The amateur kit market is a cut-throat business and second class is not good enough. Heathkit has to be first class or they will fail.

Heathkits?

Is this real? Are they really coming back? My very first introduction to radio was a Heathkit, so I do hope this is true. At one time Heathkits were the very best. There have been a few false dawns.

See https://shop.heathkit.com/shop .

Heathkit coming back?

There are rumours suggesting that Heathkit is being resurrected and may yet again sell kits.  I sincerely hope this is correct as Heath made some of the very best kits in its time. When it stopped selling amateur radio kits it left a big hole.

In my time I owned the HW8 (15, 20, 40 and 80m QRP CW transceiver), plus an Electronics Workshop when I was first interested in radio way back in the early 1960s. The Electronics Workshop enabled me to do some Medium Wave broadcast DXing around Christmas 1961) and some decent DX was worked with the HW8 in the late 1970s.

Although the Heathkit website (www.heathkit.com) worked yesterday it does not appear to work today, at least not when I tried.  Http:/heathkit.com does work. It does not like the www. Try deleting this if it appears in your browser.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit .
See also http://www.amateurradio.com/heathkit-2/ - post by Neil W2NDG.
See http://stores.ebay.com/datapro/_i.html?rt=nc&LH_BIN=1

Heathkit

My first introduction to radio was an "Electronics Workshop" kit by Heathkit. If memory serves me correctly this was my Christmas present in Dec 1961. It used a few transistors and othttps://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8her parts with spring contacts and wires to configure each circuit.   No soldering was needed.

That Christmas I did my first Medium Wave DXing with one of the circuits and I was very exited to receive stations in the Middle East and Russia.   Other circuits included a very low power transmitter for MW. This used the crystal earpiece as the microphone. As I recall, it got to the next room in the house. This was the kick-off I needed.

Years later I owned a Heathkit HW8 QRP HF CW rig. It worked very well indeed and I worked some decent DX with it. It is such a pity Heathkit is no more as they made some really good kits.

I guess the nearest these days is Elecraft. Sadly Elecraft products are expensive in the UK:  good radios, but far too much. As an example for the price of one KX3 kit (better RX I know, but covering fewer bands) one can buy 2 FT817NDs ready built with a 2 year warranty. And I think we are paying too much for the FT817ND here in the UK!  If the KX3 is fully loaded with mic, ATU, 2m etc, then it is very expensive. The prices are as they are because punters are prepared to pay.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit .
See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8 .

Heathkit HW8 QRP HF CW Transceiver

Looking back on all the rigs I have owned over the years, the Heathkit HW8 must be up there near the top of the list. I bought mine secondhand ready built in totally unmodified state. It stayed in its original state all the time I owned it. It was eventually sold back to its original owner when I bought a Yaesu FT7 I believe.

https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8/hw8a.jpg?attredirects=0

I could go on the air most days and be sure to work something including plenty of DX on 15m. There are lots of mods on the net but as it is it performs pretty well.  It gets a good score in the reviews on http://www.eham.net . The power out was around 2-3W and the RX a decent direct conversion design. Style-wise it was typical Heathkit - very neat on the desktop. I used mine with the Heathkit PSU.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/hf/hw8 .

These days, the HW8 is hard to find and not cheap, for good reasons.  I liked the looks and performance of mine and regret selling it. I actually preferred it to the 4-band superhet based Elecraft K1 CW rig. If you own no other radios, you can do a lot worse than the HW8. It just works well.  A couple of watts of CW is quite enough to work DX on 20 or 15m as well as loads of UK and EU stations on the lower bands.

Finally RIP Heathkit

It was a long time finally dying after the last Heathkit amateur radio product was made by this once fine company, but I read today on the Southgate Amateur Radio News page that what was left of the company has now filed for bankruptcy.  Latterly it had been involved in educational systems but funding was drying up.

VE6CN's fine line-up of Heathkit products

Founded in 1926, Heathkit was famous for its kits in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. They were the Elecraft of their day with sound designs and clear step-by-step building instructions.  My first introduction into electronics and radio was with a kit for Christmas 1961. I never looked back thanks to that wonderful product.

I hope VE6CN wont mind me linking to his picture showing his fine line-up of Heathkit products. For a lot more pictures of Heathkit amateur radio products see http://www.ultrawebb.com/OHP/gallery.htm .

Heathkit kits again?

The Southgate amateur news page carries a story that Heathkit may be about to start the production of kits again after a break of many years. This would be excellent news. Heathkit used to produce world class kits that were in a class of their own with first class instructions. Let us hope they decide to restart amateur radio kits as well in due course. In the amateur radio field Elecraft are the nearest.

Heathkit from 50 years ago

Dave G3UUR pointed me in the direction of the 1961 American Heathkit catalogue in which I found the EW19 electronic workshop kit. My memory had this as the EW1, but I must have got this wrong. My mum and dad bought me this for Christmas 1961 and it was this that got me started in radio as a hobby.  The Medium Wave radio was used for my first DXing late in the evenings. Also, the simple MW transmitter (using the crystal earpiece as a mic) got me across the house - my first transmissions.

The Heathkit Lunchbox on 75m AM

K6KWQ has just built a Small Wonders Lab "Retro-75" QRP AM transceiver kit into an old Heathkit HW30 (Lunchbox) case. The Retro-75 puts out 2.5W AM on 80/75m and is a nice way of getting back on AM on the band. AM is quite popular in the UK with stations active around 3615kHz.  Dick has made a very neat job of re-labelling the old Heathkit box so it looks like a genuine Heathkit rig, but for 75m AM.

DSB mod for the Heathkit HW8

When looking around for ideas for DSB rigs I found a page which shows how to modify the HW8 for DSB operation by adding a balanced modulator and audio stages.  KL7R reports that he worked New Zealand using the modified HW8 on sideband.

6m (4m?) distraction

OK, I'm about 40 years out of date with my technology, so if I live to be 100 you may just find me getting excited by SDRs and the like when the rest of you are busy with thought and matter transfer. Who cares, it keeps me happy and doesn't cost a lot :-)

This last week I have had a spurt of creative (?) energy and have been building. Firstly I started work on the 10m DSB rig. The RX is fully working using the Neophyte as a basis. Next I tried the 14.3MHz ceramic resonator-doubler idea for the LO but was disappointed that I couldn't get it to reliably pull down to a useful part of the 10m SSB band. The plan was to look at a mixer-VFO and then put the whole breadboard together with the DSB TX. But I got distracted....

Instead, I built a simple super-regen AM RX for 6m (or 4m), which works well using T37-6 toroids. All that I need to do is arrange for the RX tuning across the chosen band with a varicap. Next I built a simple series modulator (even simpler than the Fredbox one) and now I've started on a very simple AM TX strip and small linear. The idea is to do a Heathkit Lunchbox "Sixer" AM transceiver replacement but in a very simple solid state and no-IC design. The design is likely to produce around 100mW of AM and can be completed for either 6m or 4m. I haven't decided which yet.

There is not a lot of AM on 6m, but a bit in pockets on 70.26MHz. I know 100mW is not much. But, this is a project I've just wanted to do for years and you'll have to bear with me. When this is done I'll get back to the serious stuff - the proper DSB transceiver that is!