This is an interesting video about the rise and fall of the Heathkit company, and how that company affected the rise and fall of American manufacturing.
The Heathkit history is interesting, but I disagree about the extent to which building a Heathkit led to an increase in technical knowledge. I guess it could, but Heath was famous for making kits that could be built by people who knew nothing about electronics. Even when many of them were done assembling the kit, most still "knew nothing" about electronics. Just look at those color TV kits: Did assembling one of those kits mean that you came to understand TV? I don't think so.
I'm looking at my HW-101 manual. It is 199 pages long. It is mostly instructions on which part should be soldered where. There is a section called "Circuit Description" but it is only 19 pages long and is at the end of the book. You could assemble the whole thing without ever reading the descriptions of the circuit. I suspect that this is what usually happened.
As for the fall of Heathkit, I think the video is closer to being correct. But it puts too much blame on the advent of small surface mount parts. That is, of course, part of it. But another part of this has to do with the shift towards FPGA and CPU chips.
Anyway, in spite of being AI produced, the video is worth watching. I note that at the end, we see a prominent homebrewer in his shack. Who is this guy?
Thanks to Rogier PA1ZZ for sending this to me.
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ReplyDeleteTrue but on the other hand it got people over the first hump. It's not easy to start completely from scratch. Certainly not in the era without all the knowledge and support we have from the internet. I lookup en learn a lot from shared knowledge online and retain it. Even if it doesn't take me straight to the solution I am looking for it provides me some knowledge and confidence to try it myself until it works. Doing so one builds a skillset and knowledge that does enable one to take it to higher levels like designing / modifying and ultimately understanding the matter.
ReplyDeleteRightfully so they mention the "Right to Repair" movement Louis Rossman is at the forefront of this.
At least the Heatkits came with a manual and schematics. Old TV's and even Fridges had a diagram on the back and parts could be obtained. Nowadays everything is locked up and parts are not available or cost a fortune.