Heathkit Advertisement in the December 2015 QST

While perusing the December 2015 issue of QST magazine, I happened across this advertisement for Heathkit build-it-yourself electronics projects. It has been a couple decades since Heathkit ads have been seen. Hopefully, people will support Heathkit's effort to re-introduce hobbyists to the fun and satisfaction of assembling, aligning, and operating everyday-useful electronics projects. At this time it appears the sole new product offering is the Explorer Jr: TRF AM Radio Receiver Kit. Whether or not a renaissance occurs is largely dependent on how enthusiastically people support their business model.

Heathkit advertisement in the December 2015 QST magazine

There is definitely a market for owner-built electronics as evidenced by the rather large number of such projects that appear on Kickstarter (see the DIY Electronics Projects category). As of this writing subjects range from Nixie tube and oscilloscope clocks to capacitor measurement tweezers to a Rubik's Cube solving machine. Note: Some of these links have audio that starts playing when the page loads.

Explorer Jr: TRF AM Radio Receiver Kit

Posted November 30, 2015

Windfreak Technologies SynthHD PRO - RF Cafe Website

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...