I Feel so cheap

[KD8DEY]

Only a few months ago Heath kit announced their intention to re enter the Amateur kit market, And
asking for product ideas.

Now we discover that Their web site is shut down, And their assets are
 being auctioned off in a one day auction.

I can only wonder if

1. Heath kit was blowing smoke up our collective wazoos in an effort to re finance their operations
   (pillow talk without the benefit of a reach around)
or
2.  was a victim of too little too late (mismanagement).

[K1CJS]

More than likely the new owners just didn't have sufficient capital to really get the company up and running.  To my understanding, the only thing they had on the market was some accessory to aid in parking a car in a garage--then they went broke.  Probably spent too much buying the rights to the name from whomever held it last.

[K1ZJH]

It was a bank foreclosure auction. I suspect Heath was
hoping for refinancing that never happened. I don't
see why anyone would think they were blowing smoke?

[KD0REQ]

as has been posted elsewhere on the site, the educational business was tanking, and I guess they underestimated the effort and overestimated how fast they could change focus and business.

not the first time somebody has basically started a business with ten bucks and found out they needed ten million.

little toy boxes don't have a heavy investment.  something like ham gear has to be overdesigned, then deconstructed to the point that a monkey who can run their finger under the line to read, do one thing, check it, and move on can succeed.  surprise! -- all the fun silicon is no longer lead-through-hole, but SMT.  this is not 12-year-old friendly like a number of us greenies needed.

don't feel cheap.  feel liberated.  they could have gotten to the 2 KW linear stage with the results being a killer flamethrower that takes down the neighborhood nuke plant.  it takes big-time work to make those safe, legal, and a successful kit.

[N1CX]

How many more kits do you think they could sell?

Would you buy a non surface mount kit and assemble it these days even if it meant it didn't do as much as a store bought radio?

Suspect most wouldn't.

They couldn't make enough money on ham radio stuff so they started making other kits. Eventually those didn't sell enough either or they wouldn't be out of business.

Sorry to see a long time icon go. It will never come back again.

First radio was a hw16 rock bound on 7038...

Then I bought a complete Apache/Mohawk SB10/6m/2m converter/speaker combo. Wish I still had that.

Then I bought a sb 303/401

Then I bought a sb102

Then I bought a ts430 new.

After that I never looked back. They were gone by then.

Now I got the hw16 with the always coveted hg10 vfo I could never afford

Long live heathkit

[WA2CWA]

They couldn't make enough money on ham radio stuff so they started making other kits. Eventually those didn't sell enough either or they wouldn't be out of business.

Their first kit was an airplane offered in 1926. Eventually went bankrupt. In 1935, Heath Company was sold at an auction. New owner sold tons of WW II electronic surplus parts. First electronic kit was a scope in 1947. A bunch of other test equipment in kit form followed. They really didn't get into the amateur market until around 1951. Time passes; kit offering ceased in 1992. Various product lines sold off. Heath Educational Systems starts and rolls along until 2012 and then goes bankrupt and, I think, with only 6 employees left on the payroll.

Pete, wa2cwa