It's up to $460 already with nearly six days to go! That's a sweet rig and probably a not-bad investment; but I'd buy it to put together and use, and $800+ is a bit over the top for that.
Christmas bidding fever on Ebay got a Penguin kit up to $180 the other day. So maybe this guy will get $800+ for his HW-8. If so, that bodes well for my $777 unbuilt HW-9, which is much more desireable. BTW, I have not had a chance to start building it, but I did get the matching unbuilt WARC pack for it. Woo Hoo!
If I ever get snowed in here in southern California , there will be no shortage of projects.
I built the HW7. The one previous to that HW8. Love it. Traded that and a few others for the original Atlas 180 way back when.
Another unbuilt HW-9 on Ebay, this one unleashed in the fury of the holiday buying spree. If it cracks $800, I won't feel bad. And no, it's not mine and mine ain't fer sale, PhiPi!
I bought my HERO Jr kit from the Los Angeles store about 1986 or 87. It was a cool store. They had a HERO 2000 I couldn't afford in the corner that was never running. Pity.
Or, now you've got one to build and one to keep.
-Phil
PhiPi got my obscure reference. It was a bargain at just $608! My lowball (?) bid won. I've won a few other items at below market value while people are out Christmas shopping. I just won a Scribbler robot for $9.99! That's a hackworthy addition to my fleet.
And yes, now I can actually build one of my twin HW-9s with a clear conscience. By building one, the other unbuilt unit becomes even rarer and more valuable!
I bought my HERO Jr kit from the Los Angeles store about 1986 or 87. It was a cool store. They had a HERO 2000 I couldn't afford in the corner that was never running. Pity.
I remember that catalog, the herald of the Zenith-Schlumberger acquisition.
They dropped practically everything radio for that xcvr and some wanker computer course demo stuff.
That was also when "Popular Electronics" had the bright idear of renaming itself "Computers and Electronics", minus the actual 'Electronics' content, and their own misguided descent into oblivion.
Explorer Jr: TRF AM radio receiver kit - black case - GR-150-BK
Front Panel Color Silver
Cranberry
Cucumber Green
Plum Pie
Sapphire Blue
Tangerine
$ 149.95
Add to Cart
1-year parts warranty
Buy now, ships within 2 days for in-stock items,
or 30 days shipping for not-in-stock.
Shipping to U.S./Canada will be added to your cart.
International shipping: We will contact you by email about any additional shipping charges after you place your order. Sales tax will be added by PayPal at checkout for California customers.
A Radio Kit Whose Time Has Come.
Again.
When Heath started designing & selling do-it-yourself airplane kits shortly after the Great War, the state-of-the-art in radio was the Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) design.
A TRF radio was a great deal. If you had a great deal of money. A TRF receiver became a fixture in the homes of families around the world, receiving the news and music AM broadcasts of the day. A family AM radio was a big investment — $100 to $625 in 1929 dollars. (With inflation, that's $1,400 to $8,700 in today's dollars.) Of course, at that price radios also were beautiful. They were made of fine wood, and designed to last. Radios were a visible and attractive furnishing you could be proud to have in your living room or parlor.
Heathkit's TRF radio is a great deal. And a great deal of radio. This Explorer Jr TM radio is modeled on the original TRF designs, but better. You get to build it yourself. It's safe and simple enough for beginners to assemble and understand. But it receives AM broadcast stations with performance superior to the vintage radios of 1930.
This is not your grandparents' TRF radio.
Although they'd love it. (And so will you.)
This radio rocks. (And rolls. News and sports work great too.) AM broadcast radio is the best band for learning about radio. AM has the most diverse collection of programs: News, sports, weather, talk, popular music. You can hear stations from farther away than with FM broadcast radio. On a cold winter evening you might hear stations from half-way across the continent. The circuit has been carefully designed and redesigned to maximize performance with a small number of parts.
Did you notice the wood? Beautiful home appliances and furnishings are not made of molded or laser-cut plastic. They tastefully use natural or historic design materials like metal and wood. So does your Explorer Jr. This model's hardwood front panel is Afro-Asian Padauk, hand-milled and rubbed with a special sealing oil at our factory in California before we ship it to help preserve its lustre for decades. (We all live in a perpetual ocean of disposable plastic objects. When's the last time any company had the courage and taste to design a radio of wood?)
The metals are aluminum and stainless steel. The tuning knob is custom-machined for you. The beautiful black case is solid anodized aluminum. We want you, or the person you give it to as a gift, to enjoy this radio for another 50 years.
Odoo image and text block
It's time for you to fall in love with radio. For the first time, or all over again.
This radio has a real air variable tuning capacitor. We have them custom-manufactured for us to our specifications, including its ball-bearing planetary reduction drive for smooth tuning. You can watch its plates move, read the manual, and understand how the radio works. Not to mention, because it's a Heathkit, we explain the electronics & physics. It's easy to understand, and soon you—or your eight-year-old—will be an expert.
All hardware is stainless. Nothing to oxidize or rust here.
Transparent rear panel & custom sled let you show off your radio art. You haven't seen this design before, because we invented it just for you. The sled and front panel design already have several patents pending. Great for for inspection, maintenance, modifying/hacking your radio, or just to show it off to your family & friends.
The front panel floats. The backlit floating front panel seems to achieve the impossible: It doesn't contact the cabinet on any of its four sides, and seems to float in the case.
You get to tune this radio. You have to tune this radio. Sometime in the past 30 years, electronics got so complex and automated that product manufacturers took control away from us, and radio stations became a number. But a radio station is not a number. It is a place, and it has "width." How wide it is depends on how far away you are from the station, how powerful it is, and how your radio was designed. You'll learn all this and more about radio every time you use your Explorer. You'll tune in stations, and tune through them, and learn to do it better and better, and hear more and more of them. The manual teaches you how. Tuning a radio is an achievement, and you will master it and enjoy it.
Our grandparents knew something we've forgotten: Radio is magic. It's time to experience the magic.
It's great for kids.
Of all ages. In all places.
Designed for everyone, from 8 to 88 years of age. All parts are large enough to see, find, handle, and assemble. Everything is highly organized. The manual takes you through every step. We designed this special kit, one of our Heathkit JrTM series of kits, for easy no-solder assembly by anyone. It can be your introduction to electronics, radios, and the joy of building something useful.
Yes, you still build all the electronics. We simply use stainless hardware instead of solder, so the greatest possible number of people can build it. More advanced models are on their way. Start here and grow with us.
Designed to share. This radio has two earbud jacks. Why two jacks? Your radio is magic. Share magic with a friend.
The Explorer Jr also has a rear jack to attach a powered speaker (coming soon from Heathkit). When the headphones or earbuds are plugged in, the speaker is silenced automatically. We thought of everything.
Designed to last. The standard assembly instructions give you a radio that you can listen to a half-hour every day, for a quarter-year, before changing its included standard AAA batteries. If you want even longer battery life, the manual tells you how to modify your radio (it's easy) to get about 4x longer battery life. It's your radio. Make it do what you want.
Take it anywhere. The entire radio is self-contained—no wires, nothing to plug in or tie you down. Just you, your earbuds, and the radio. Take it anywhere. The beach, on a family vacation, to your friend's house. Show it off. After all, you built it. Be sure to brag just a little.
Take control. Listen in privacy. Speaking of being on the go, let's be frank. Everywhere you go today, Internet and phone companies are following you. Your cell phone, GPS, the WiFi networks you connect to, and cell towers track your every step as you walk, drive, or sit at home. Your Internet browser is fed a constant stream of tracking cookies, Flash supercookies, passive-profiling target requests, and more. Search engines? Streaming music services? Internet TV and video? Of course they do the same. And not just you —all your family members are monitored and collated and indexed too; these "services" make no distinction between adults and children.
But when you tune around on an ExplorerTM radio, no one is monitoring you. Instead, you're monitoring them. You choose what to listen to. When your child (or grandchild) builds and listens to this radio, no electronics is tracking and recording their every move. Privacy is restored.
It's your choice. Choose your panel color: There's a color for everyone. It's your first step in taking control back and making your appliances yours.
Odoo image and text block
OK, here are some technical specs.
Mode: AM
Tuning range: 540 kHz - 1650 kHz nominal
Sensitivity: 600 μV typical max sensitivity (S+N/N TBA — still being measured at the lab)
Selectivity: (TBA)
Stability: (TBA)
AGC range: 30 dB nominal
Front panel: 2 standard earbud jacks, 50 Ohms nominal
Rear panel: 1 standard speaker jack, 100 Ohms nominal (requires powered speaker)
Size: Approx. 3" high x 5" wide x 5" deep (76mm x 127 mm x 100mm)
3.25" high (88mm) incl. feet.
Weight: 1.7 lb (0.67 kg) nominal with batteries
Time to build a radio.
Let's get started together.
This radio kit is ready and waiting for you. Every part is included, even the tools you might not have. (Not every 8-year-old has their own Phillips screwdriver or Allen wrenches yet. Now they will.) Once you've built it, you add the tools to your toolbox—or they become the start of one, and a life-long passion.
Start down a life-long path with us. This is the first in our series of ExplorerTM products. After you assemble this radio, you'll have a working radio you can use with pride for decades. It's an appliance of professional quality inside, and frankly, better designed than most commercial electronics products on the outside. And you built it. You'll know how it works, and if it ever breaks you'll know how to fix it.
You'll also be ready for the next step in the Explorer series, which will teach new lessons, provide new rewards, and give you your next beautiful appliance you'll build, then keep and use for a lifetime. There's no end in sight. And it can start today, for you or someone you love.
It's time to build a radio. Go check out all those great colors up at the top. See you up there.
Learn more.
Home
Events
Q&A
Forums
Shop
Connect with us.
Contact us
News
+1 (831) 480-4368
info.2015@2015.heath.company
Heath Company (Heathkit) - About us
We are product fanatics. Our goal is to improve your life by helping you build the complex products you use daily. You'll learn how they work, and be able to fix and change them yourself. We design great products you can be pleased to own, and proud you made.
Heathkit® in all uses, the Heathkit name, the Heathkit logos and slogans including "We won't let you fail." TM and "Prepare to succeed." TM, and "Heathkit® Educational Systems" are internationally registered trademarks of Heath Company.
Honestly I think this idea is pretty cool (in terms of how they're marketing it), but the price tag need to be around half of what they're asking, or I can't really see them making a comeback.
Honestly I think this idea is pretty cool (in terms of how they're marketing it), but the price tag need to be around half of what they're asking, or I can't really see them making a comeback.
The say: "We simply use stainless hardware instead of solder".
I think that this is a bad idea in general. It's not going to appeal to Heathkit fans of old and it's not going to allow for even moderately complex circuits. For a simple kit like this radio I guess it's ok, you're right that they do need to lower the price quite a lot.
Comments
-Phil
I built the HW7. The one previous to that HW8. Love it. Traded that and a few others for the original Atlas 180 way back when.
And then there were two.
Yup.
Between the heathkit, Edmund Scientific and the Wish Book catalogs. Were very happy memories...
Remember a Heathkit store in San Diego.
I bought my HERO Jr kit from the Los Angeles store about 1986 or 87. It was a cool store. They had a HERO 2000 I couldn't afford in the corner that was never running. Pity.
Or, now you've got one to build and one to keep.
-Phil
PhiPi got my obscure reference. It was a bargain at just $608! My lowball (?) bid won. I've won a few other items at below market value while people are out Christmas shopping. I just won a Scribbler robot for $9.99! That's a hackworthy addition to my fleet.
And yes, now I can actually build one of my twin HW-9s with a clear conscience. By building one, the other unbuilt unit becomes even rarer and more valuable!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190774144921&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321048624539
I know what you mean...
-Phil
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200888123713
They dropped practically everything radio for that xcvr and some wanker computer course demo stuff.
That was also when "Popular Electronics" had the bright idear of renaming itself "Computers and Electronics", minus the actual 'Electronics' content, and their own misguided descent into oblivion.
PE - maybe they can join forces with radio shack
Explorer Jr: TRF AM radio receiver kit - black case - GR-150-BK
Front Panel Color Silver
Cranberry
Cucumber Green
Plum Pie
Sapphire Blue
Tangerine
$ 149.95
Add to Cart
1-year parts warranty
Buy now, ships within 2 days for in-stock items,
or 30 days shipping for not-in-stock.
Shipping to U.S./Canada will be added to your cart.
International shipping: We will contact you by email about any additional shipping charges after you place your order. Sales tax will be added by PayPal at checkout for California customers.
A Radio Kit Whose Time Has Come.
Again.
When Heath started designing & selling do-it-yourself airplane kits shortly after the Great War, the state-of-the-art in radio was the Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) design.
A TRF radio was a great deal. If you had a great deal of money. A TRF receiver became a fixture in the homes of families around the world, receiving the news and music AM broadcasts of the day. A family AM radio was a big investment — $100 to $625 in 1929 dollars. (With inflation, that's $1,400 to $8,700 in today's dollars.) Of course, at that price radios also were beautiful. They were made of fine wood, and designed to last. Radios were a visible and attractive furnishing you could be proud to have in your living room or parlor.
Heathkit's TRF radio is a great deal. And a great deal of radio. This Explorer Jr TM radio is modeled on the original TRF designs, but better. You get to build it yourself. It's safe and simple enough for beginners to assemble and understand. But it receives AM broadcast stations with performance superior to the vintage radios of 1930.
This is not your grandparents' TRF radio.
Although they'd love it. (And so will you.)
This radio rocks. (And rolls. News and sports work great too.) AM broadcast radio is the best band for learning about radio. AM has the most diverse collection of programs: News, sports, weather, talk, popular music. You can hear stations from farther away than with FM broadcast radio. On a cold winter evening you might hear stations from half-way across the continent. The circuit has been carefully designed and redesigned to maximize performance with a small number of parts.
Did you notice the wood? Beautiful home appliances and furnishings are not made of molded or laser-cut plastic. They tastefully use natural or historic design materials like metal and wood. So does your Explorer Jr. This model's hardwood front panel is Afro-Asian Padauk, hand-milled and rubbed with a special sealing oil at our factory in California before we ship it to help preserve its lustre for decades. (We all live in a perpetual ocean of disposable plastic objects. When's the last time any company had the courage and taste to design a radio of wood?)
The metals are aluminum and stainless steel. The tuning knob is custom-machined for you. The beautiful black case is solid anodized aluminum. We want you, or the person you give it to as a gift, to enjoy this radio for another 50 years.
Odoo image and text block
It's time for you to fall in love with radio. For the first time, or all over again.
This radio has a real air variable tuning capacitor. We have them custom-manufactured for us to our specifications, including its ball-bearing planetary reduction drive for smooth tuning. You can watch its plates move, read the manual, and understand how the radio works. Not to mention, because it's a Heathkit, we explain the electronics & physics. It's easy to understand, and soon you—or your eight-year-old—will be an expert.
All hardware is stainless. Nothing to oxidize or rust here.
Transparent rear panel & custom sled let you show off your radio art. You haven't seen this design before, because we invented it just for you. The sled and front panel design already have several patents pending. Great for for inspection, maintenance, modifying/hacking your radio, or just to show it off to your family & friends.
The front panel floats. The backlit floating front panel seems to achieve the impossible: It doesn't contact the cabinet on any of its four sides, and seems to float in the case.
You get to tune this radio. You have to tune this radio. Sometime in the past 30 years, electronics got so complex and automated that product manufacturers took control away from us, and radio stations became a number. But a radio station is not a number. It is a place, and it has "width." How wide it is depends on how far away you are from the station, how powerful it is, and how your radio was designed. You'll learn all this and more about radio every time you use your Explorer. You'll tune in stations, and tune through them, and learn to do it better and better, and hear more and more of them. The manual teaches you how. Tuning a radio is an achievement, and you will master it and enjoy it.
Our grandparents knew something we've forgotten: Radio is magic. It's time to experience the magic.
It's great for kids.
Of all ages. In all places.
Designed for everyone, from 8 to 88 years of age. All parts are large enough to see, find, handle, and assemble. Everything is highly organized. The manual takes you through every step. We designed this special kit, one of our Heathkit JrTM series of kits, for easy no-solder assembly by anyone. It can be your introduction to electronics, radios, and the joy of building something useful.
Yes, you still build all the electronics. We simply use stainless hardware instead of solder, so the greatest possible number of people can build it. More advanced models are on their way. Start here and grow with us.
Designed to share. This radio has two earbud jacks. Why two jacks? Your radio is magic. Share magic with a friend.
The Explorer Jr also has a rear jack to attach a powered speaker (coming soon from Heathkit). When the headphones or earbuds are plugged in, the speaker is silenced automatically. We thought of everything.
Designed to last. The standard assembly instructions give you a radio that you can listen to a half-hour every day, for a quarter-year, before changing its included standard AAA batteries. If you want even longer battery life, the manual tells you how to modify your radio (it's easy) to get about 4x longer battery life. It's your radio. Make it do what you want.
Take it anywhere. The entire radio is self-contained—no wires, nothing to plug in or tie you down. Just you, your earbuds, and the radio. Take it anywhere. The beach, on a family vacation, to your friend's house. Show it off. After all, you built it. Be sure to brag just a little.
Take control. Listen in privacy. Speaking of being on the go, let's be frank. Everywhere you go today, Internet and phone companies are following you. Your cell phone, GPS, the WiFi networks you connect to, and cell towers track your every step as you walk, drive, or sit at home. Your Internet browser is fed a constant stream of tracking cookies, Flash supercookies, passive-profiling target requests, and more. Search engines? Streaming music services? Internet TV and video? Of course they do the same. And not just you —all your family members are monitored and collated and indexed too; these "services" make no distinction between adults and children.
But when you tune around on an ExplorerTM radio, no one is monitoring you. Instead, you're monitoring them. You choose what to listen to. When your child (or grandchild) builds and listens to this radio, no electronics is tracking and recording their every move. Privacy is restored.
It's your choice. Choose your panel color: There's a color for everyone. It's your first step in taking control back and making your appliances yours.
Odoo image and text block
OK, here are some technical specs.
Mode: AM
Tuning range: 540 kHz - 1650 kHz nominal
Sensitivity: 600 μV typical max sensitivity (S+N/N TBA — still being measured at the lab)
Selectivity: (TBA)
Stability: (TBA)
AGC range: 30 dB nominal
Front panel: 2 standard earbud jacks, 50 Ohms nominal
Rear panel: 1 standard speaker jack, 100 Ohms nominal (requires powered speaker)
Size: Approx. 3" high x 5" wide x 5" deep (76mm x 127 mm x 100mm)
3.25" high (88mm) incl. feet.
Weight: 1.7 lb (0.67 kg) nominal with batteries
Time to build a radio.
Let's get started together.
This radio kit is ready and waiting for you. Every part is included, even the tools you might not have. (Not every 8-year-old has their own Phillips screwdriver or Allen wrenches yet. Now they will.) Once you've built it, you add the tools to your toolbox—or they become the start of one, and a life-long passion.
Start down a life-long path with us. This is the first in our series of ExplorerTM products. After you assemble this radio, you'll have a working radio you can use with pride for decades. It's an appliance of professional quality inside, and frankly, better designed than most commercial electronics products on the outside. And you built it. You'll know how it works, and if it ever breaks you'll know how to fix it.
You'll also be ready for the next step in the Explorer series, which will teach new lessons, provide new rewards, and give you your next beautiful appliance you'll build, then keep and use for a lifetime. There's no end in sight. And it can start today, for you or someone you love.
It's time to build a radio. Go check out all those great colors up at the top. See you up there.
Learn more.
Home
Events
Q&A
Forums
Shop
Connect with us.
Contact us
News
+1 (831) 480-4368
info.2015@2015.heath.company
Heath Company (Heathkit) - About us
We are product fanatics. Our goal is to improve your life by helping you build the complex products you use daily. You'll learn how they work, and be able to fix and change them yourself. We design great products you can be pleased to own, and proud you made.
Heathkit® in all uses, the Heathkit name, the Heathkit logos and slogans including "We won't let you fail." TM and "Prepare to succeed." TM, and "Heathkit® Educational Systems" are internationally registered trademarks of Heath Company.
Copyright © 2015 Heath Company and Heathkit®. All rights reserved.
Honestly I think this idea is pretty cool (in terms of how they're marketing it), but the price tag need to be around half of what they're asking, or I can't really see them making a comeback.
The say: "We simply use stainless hardware instead of solder".
I think that this is a bad idea in general. It's not going to appeal to Heathkit fans of old and it's not going to allow for even moderately complex circuits. For a simple kit like this radio I guess it's ok, you're right that they do need to lower the price quite a lot.