There was also Heathkit, which sold built-it-yourself kits for all kinds of electronics. Stereos, amateur radio gear, televisions, multimeters and oscilloscopes, etc.
Yeah I was fortunate to have grown up when Heathkit had stores, they blew away Radio Shack. Could never afford anything in there but the catalogs were fun to read and store was amazing to browse.
It's a shame we have nothing like that today, electronics are just "magic" to people now that is made elsewhere.
I hope to be wrong; as an European I know Heathkit only from what was published back in the day on Electronics magazines, the occasional kit that arrived here and the archive of old projects of that era still available online [0,1], however this appears to me as a completely different business with mostly overpriced products; as for now all I see is the name.
My entire ham radio station was built from Heathkits in the sixties. I still have the transceiver and linear amplifier in storage. Been meaning to replace all the capacitors and fire it back up. It would be like restoring a car I drove in my teen age years, reminding me of many good times.
Got on their mailing list when they attempted a comeback but haven't heard a thing from them in years.
I remember puzzling over everything in the store as a kid, it was fascinating and I couldn't afford anything but the free catalogs. I knew those super-dooper expensive computers were the future. (Eventually built a Heathkit AM radio).
If Heathkit got their act together, I'm sure they could become successful again. The Maker/DIY movement is big, and they do have that brand name. They could even use the classic designs, retro is super big at moment. Yes, tubes are back! :-)
Heathkit products were available in the UK but relatively expensive.
That market niche was taken by a huge electronics hobbyist industry which included ten or so popular stores, a handful of monthly magazines, and various suppliers of project kits. The kits were advertised in the magazines and occasionally a kit would be featured as a project. Bigger projects could be spread over many months, with fairly minimal assembly instructions - often just a board view with component IDs/values - but relatively detailed "How it works" breakdowns.
There would also be regular features about technician/cookbook-level design topics. Not exactly EE grad level engineering, but enough of an overview to glue simple circuits together.
While some kits were complete others required inventive design for packaging, labelling, and board connections.
IMO it was more diverse and DIY-oriented scene with a smaller range of projects, but less hand-holding and more educational background detail.
I know the US had a similar scene, but some of the UK magazines had an attitude that was irreverent, fun, but still educational. I don't think there was a US equivalent.
I still wish we could have afforded an H11 though.
My dad built a few Heathkit devices like signal generators, etc. for his home electronics repair sideline in the 1960's and 70's, and as I reached max capability at building plastic model kits he asked me to build a Heathkit oscilloscope. It was a whole new universe, but the satisfaction was indescribable. He was a wizard, and I did my best. Between Heathkit, Radio Shack, military surplus, and later Fry's in San Jose, I was in tech doodad heaven.
I bought a morse code keyer from Heathkit when I was a kid. It was the only thing I could afford at the time but I spent many hours reading their catalog and lusting over their ham radio kits.
I remember changing the channel on a color HeathKit TV at my grandparents by shaking house keys because the ultrasonic remote sensor circuit interpreted it as channel down. (It had a diagnostic and circuit diagram on a fold-down panel IIRC.)
Also my father and grandfather both made multiple technology generations of oscilloscopes from kits. And, my father opened an electrical automotive shop in Santa Clara, thanks in part to learning from HeathKit and other study-at-home electronics courses.
Built my entire ham shack from Heathkit's as a teenager. Still have an SB-101 transceiver and SB-200 linear amplifier in storage. They brought me so many great memories I can't bear to part from them.
A team based in Arizona tried to relaunch Heathkit a few years ago. It included several Heathkit veterans and they even talked about possibly manufacturing them in the Benton Harbor area. Lots of blog posts and social media but I'm not sure if they ever released any products. Does anyone know?
Radio Shack had an identity crisis for much of its history and going back to at least the 70s they were as much about selling mostly crappy audio, toys, etc. as they were about selling components. I suspect big box electronic retailers played as big a part in killing them as anything else. But there was also a period, during which Heathkits went away, when it became much more difficult to do interesting stuff as a casual electronics hobbyist at home.
Things like Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, 3D printers, Linux, etc. arguably made a new generation of hardware hacking possible but those came later.
Count me among the people sad to see this once-awesome company decline. My dad was a mechanical engineer, and built our first stereo set and television from Heathkits. He used to take my brother and I to Radio Shack on weekends and the place was always buzzing.
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