GoKawiilNostalgic Kits Central
The era of electronic kits started (with a few minor exceptions like Stancor) after the end of WWII. In 1947, Heath offered its first kit, a 5 inch oscilloscope. Heath rapidly grew and after a while, other companies embraced the kit business. None were as successful as Heath but they still played an important role in the industry. Perhaps, like me, you built some of those kits. The availability of inexpensive electronic kits and the learning process of building, troubleshooting and using them quite likely encouraged many to pursue a career in electronics. For others, it contributed to a hobby that had a lasting character. For all, there was a common bond of construction brotherhood. It was a wonderful time when we saved our money, bought and then built amazing electronic devices on kitchen or dining room tables, garage or basement workshops or wherever a safe space for all of those beautiful parts could be found. Not every kit worked the first time it was turned on. Many were built by those who had never used a soldering iron before. Evidence of this still exists today in some kits that have been sold on the used market. Some builders lost interest due to a mismatch between kit complexity and builder skills. Many others learned from their mistakes and went on to build many more kits. This website is for all of those builders. Perhaps it will jog a memory. Hopefully a good one. To sort of paraphrase the immortal words of Cuba Gooding Jr. in the movie Jerry Maguire, "show me the kits!".
BTW - Heathkits were not just a U.S. phenomenon. After Heath reached a certain level of success, versions of the Heathkit product line were offered in the U.K. and Europe and there were differences. More about this in a future update. What follows are brief descriptions of the companies represented here.
Heathkit was a well known supplier of electronic kits from 1947 through the early 1990's (although no new kits were developed after 1986). An incredible number of kits were offered including test equipment, amateur and SWL radio, audio, televisions, computers, robotics, automotive and other items difficult to categorize. Not all of their product offerings were kits. In their later years, many items were offered as either kits or assembled. Some items were only available assembled. Further, some products were made by other companies and rebranded as Heathkit. This site will focus just on items available in kit form. For now, the robotics kits are not included. Heathkit is no longer in business. Don Desrochers, the owner, filed for bankrupcy in May of 2012. In their last few years they focused on selling educational products to schools and were known as Heathkit Educational Systems. A decline in funding from federal and state sources had a serious impact on their revenues. An article on the ARRL website discusses this matter in more detail. When discussing electronic kit providers of the 20th century, Heathkit was the big Kahuna and is by far the largest part of this site. The best place to learn about the history of the company is in Chuck Penson's excellent books "Heathkit: A Guide to the Amateur Radio Products" and "Heathkit Test Equipment Products". There are a number of good Internet based information sources as well like WikipediA (see the Heathkit Resources page).
There were others who were perhaps a little less known. Among them were Allied Radio, EICO, EMC, Precise, Paco, Dynaco and Stancor. The goal of this site is to attempt to document the kits produced by all of these companies via product tables containing pictures, specifications, block diagrams, calibration info and clean schematics when available. Where available, the product tables will include links to other off site information resources.
Allied Radio (now known as RS Americas) is a company with a long nine decade history. It was founded in Chicago, IL. in 1928. Its purpose was to distribute radio parts for Columbia Radio Corp. By 1932, Allied was selling electronic parts by catalog. Storefront sales operations were established with the goal of selling to amateur radio operators and electronics experimenters. During WWII, Allied devoted itself to the war effort by handling government contracts and high-priority industrial needs. This was Allied's first real experience in industrial electronics. After the war, Allied continued to sell to the consumer and industrial markets. Sometime around 1962, Allied Electronics was created as a subsidiary of Allied Radio. In 1971, Allied was acquired by Tandy (ultimaely Radio Shack Corp.) and moved its headquarters to Fort Worth, Texas. Around 1981, Spartan Manufacturing acquired the company. In 1997, Avnet took over ownership. In 1999, Allied Electronics was acquired by Electrocomponents plc of the United Kingdom. In 2023 the company became RS Americas. RS Americas continues to sell electronic components by catalog and Internet ordering. Allied Radio produced a line of kits under the Knight label. They were called Knight-Kits. Although not as extensive a line as Heathkit, they had many offerings in test equipment. Amateur radio, SWL, audio, entertainment and educational/experimenter kits rounded out their product line.
EICO , or Electronic Instrument Company, started life around 1945 in Brooklyn New York. Like Allied Radio, most of their kit products were test equipment although audio and some ham and CB products became another important part of their line. Their products were sold direct, through distributors, dealers and even through the Allied catalog. At some point in their history, they dropped out of the electronics business and got into the selling and mortgaging of commercial real estate. According to an article in Business.com, "The shareholders of the company have approved a plan of liquidation on May 28, 1999. The liquidation is expected to be complete by December 31, 2002."
EMC , which stands for Electronic Measurements Corporation, was a supplier of test equipment in both kit and assembled form. They were based in Westbury, L.I., New York. Their products were generally lower end technology with lower prices. Their slogan was "EMC gives more measurement value per dollar". EMC products were marketed through electronics magazines and some electronics stores. Their line was never as extensive as the other kit providers but they did fill a need.
Precise Electronics & Development Corp. was a company that marketed test equipment. At different times they were based in Mineola and Oceanside, N.Y. Their product line was small compared to their competition. In order to differentiate themselves, they added features not commonly found like larger screens on their oscilloscopes. Although I still own a model 630 signal generator, I haven't been able to find much information on this company. Some of their products were listed in the 1962 Allied catalog.
PACO was a division of Precision Apparatus Co. (a subsidiary of Pacotronics). Later they became a division of Dynascan Corp. They were a relatively small player in the kit market. As far as I've been able to determine, they only sold test equipment and Hi-Fi kits. Like EMC, they sold products in both kit and assembled form. They were based at 70-31 84th St., Glendale 27, Long Island, N.Y. If you have any information to share on this company and its products, I'd appreciate it.
... continue reading