![]() ![]() While watching the February 13 City Council meeting it occurred to me that constructing a building here in Redwood City is a little bit (OK, a very little bit) like constructing a Heathkit. And note that they plan to introduce more kits over time, so check back periodically if you don’t see anything that appeals to you right now. If you or someone you know is interested in building electronic kits, do check out their website. I am most of the way through building their electronic digital clock, and the experience is just as I remembered it. But this part of my story has a happy ending: Heathkit has been resurrected! They only have a tiny number of kits at the moment, but their current incarnation possesses the original designs and instruction manuals and they plan to reintroduce updated kits to the kit-building public. That particular building has had a few different tenants over the years, the latest appearing just recently when Medallion Rug Outlet-whom I presume is connected to Medallion Rug Gallery-moved in.Īlthough I understand the economics behind Heathkit getting out of the kit business, I was nevertheless depressed when they did: I whiled away a great many happy hours building and then using my Heathkit projects. Heathkit got out of the kit business in 1992, having closed their Redwood City store (I believe) sometime before. When I moved to the Bay Area I was delighted to discover that they had a couple of stores here, one of which was at the corner of Middlefield Road and Woodside Road in Redwood City-in this building: Heathkit had a few retail stores, the nearest to me being in downtown Los Angeles, far from my home. I built a handful of Heathkits, including a shortwave radio receiver (with vacuum tubes!), a pocket calculator, a computer terminal, and, finally, a 16-bit computer with two 8-inch floppy drives. Heathkit was a Michigan-based company that designed and sold kits for a wide variety of electronic devices: everything from simple radios up through color televisions, shortwave transceivers, electronic test equipment, and, starting in the late 1970s, computers. ![]() Back then one of my favorites was the Heathkit catalog. I also spent a ton of time poring through technical magazines and catalogs. I spent a lot of time at my local Radio Shack (which actually was a good place for electronic parts back then) and, later, at my local computer store. But it is up again, now, so enjoy!Įven as a kid I was into computers and electronics. I posted this article on Friday afternoon as usual, but due to a technical glitch my site was unavailable until a short while ago.
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