Vintage Heathkit DG-140 Two-Station Intercom Kit
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Heathkit catalogs can be found at World Radio History and Heathkit Catalogs. Heathkit manuals can be downloaded for free here. These are the kits for which I have photos: Heathkit IM−104 Solid-State Voltmeter Heathkit HW-5400 SSB HF Transceiver Heathkit HM−1002 RF Power Meter My Heathkit ET−3100 Design Experimenter Heathkit GR−48 AM/FM Table Radio Kit Heathkit DG−140 Two-Station Intercom Kit Heathkit HD−1481 Remote Coax Switch Heathkit AR-1250 Stereo Receiver Heathkit GD−1380 Video Game Pong Heathkit IG−5257 TV Post-Marker / Sweep Generator Heathkit SA−2060A Deluxe Antenna Tuner Heathkit IM−2400 Hand-Held 512 MHz Frequency Counter Heathkit IM−2420 Benchtop 512 MHz Frequency Counter Heathkit HW-9 QRP Transceiver Heathkit CR−1 AM Crystal Radio Receiver Heathkit HW−99 Novice CW Transceiver Heathkit SA−5010 uMatic Morse Code Keyer Heathkit GD−1114 Intercom Speaker System Occasionally an unbuilt vintage Heathkit item appears on eBay with really nice photos of the contents. In fact, I have a Saved Search that sends me an e-mail whenever one shows up. This morning, a Heathkit DG−140 Two-Station Intercom kit appeared on auction. The instruction booklet has a publish date of 1972, so I looked for a copy of it on the WWW but the only thing I could find was a PDF for purchase. Despite the 1972 date, it appears it was 1973 when the DG−140 was first available. The 1971 catalog still shows the previous version, the DG−141 (which you might understandably think would be the newer model number). There is a big difference in the chassis configuration from the DG−141 to the DG−140. Per the 1973 Heathkit catalog, the DG−140 was priced at $29.95 ($184.91 in 2021 money - a whopping 6.2x factor in 48 years). Heathkit products were well known for the completeness of its instruction manuals, with clearly illustrated instructions. During the writing and editing process, Heathkit employees were given pre-production kits to take home and build, while annotating any difficulties or errors encountered. Doing so helped minimize the situation where the writer inadvertently assumes his own familiarity with the process is shared by the customer. Having built a few Heathkit products myself in the 1970s when I did not have a lot of experience with electronics assembly, I can attest to the user friendliness of the instructions. Heathkit stills sells many of its vintage manuals for around $15, which is what you would pay on eBay.
Contact Info Heath Company (Heathkit) Operations: PO Box 15, Ottsville, PA 18942 R&D/Mfg: PO Box 3115, Santa Cruz CA 95063 Phone: +1 (831) 480-4368 E-Mail: info.2015@2015.heath.company
Posted March 19, 2021 |
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