Heathkit and Us Older Guys.

[poorguy]

hey all,

I figure I would see how many remember Heathkit , All American Five (AA5) , (Slide Rules the original calculator).
I built several heathkit kits and still own them and they still work.
a 6 transistor portable am radio / a vacuum tube tester / a capacitor tester.
I learned about how vacuum tubes worked as a child because I wanted to get a ham radio license which at that time I believe it was 20 words a minute for cw. something which is no longer required. as a child it was cool because it was cheap and you could pick up old equipment at swap meats for nothing. still hold the license but haven't been on a radio in years.

well just was curious as it was mentioned in another thread.
the poorguy

 

[jmccleary50]

I bought one assembled Heathkit. A dual trace oscilloscope. Because I didn't trust myself to assemble anything that exotic.

 

[Richard Weinberg]

As a teenager, I built a Heathkit amplifier and FM tuner. Very enjoyable experience

 

[poorguy]

an oscilloscope would be pretty intensive kit build. do you still have it.

yeah I always wanted to build a stereo amp but just never got around to it.

as a kid I was always working on some ham radio project and it was a lot of fun being able to talk around the world.
man that was a big thing for a 10 year old kid.
don't know why I drifted away from it as I got older.
I did get into television repair at 16 and wound in consumer repair industry and am still there today.
seen lots of changes in the industry some good and a lot more bad as repair shops closed in the late 1980s.
I have a small repair shop in my back yard where I work on old tube table radios and that is soothing I really enjoy.

the poorguy

 

[jmccleary50]

just got done installing office 365 and boy is it different from what i remember office 2010 being. i will figure it out.
Yes I remember those good ole days too. I stated in an earlier post that my word starter 2010 was destroyed by System Mechanic. Now we are bombarded with get office 365. No thanks. The days of leaving well enough alone seem to be gone.

 

[poorguy]

well whatever one downloads one must really search it out prior to downloading.
what i really hate is all the extra browser crapola that seems to be part of the download site and if that is the case than i won't use it.

as far as system cleaners and registry cleaners that is another area where one must be careful as you can destroy things if not careful about what you clean.

i like ccleaner but i only use the browser part of the cleaner. i don't believe in all of this registry cleaning crap

yeah office 365 is different but it looks easy enough to use the more i look at it.
not everyone likes or gets used to new change and i am one of them, however.

the poorguy

 

[poorguy]

how many people remember Lafayette Radio Electronics and Allied Radio Electronics they both sold electronics kits.

the poorguy

 

[jmccleary50]

I was a late bloomer in computers getting into Windows 95/98 as a government employee. Guys who were smarter than me said unless you're absolutely sure of what you're doing stay out of the register. Still true. The government was a whole new lifestyle. Computer police everywhere! Have you changed your password? You can't use that browser-it might go to a porn site. And speaking of porn they would monitor where you were on a computer and actually come to your office armed to investigate. Nothing like amiable working conditions huh?
The closest thing to the register I've seen is Power Shell. I had it deleted then revived it to get rid of xbox (i'm not a gamer). Actually it's not too bad and I have some confidence with it. Not so with register or anything resembling MS-DOS. One bad keystroke and all is lost.
So much for my story. The latest toy is my big letter illuminated keyboard i'm doing this on.
So far so good and i'm going to leave it alone.
Edit: Yes I remember Lafayette and Allied. Did one Lafayette for someone else and couldn't knock it but still was partial to Heathkit.

 

[poorguy]

well I cut my teeth on windows xp so I was even later then some. just never had a need for one until then.
yeah where I work they try to lock us down to where we can go but it never works.
yeah messing with the registry can really create problems. we have IT people at work that are always breaking working systems because they think they can tweak stuff.
the computer police I haven't heard that in a while.
yeah I stay away from DOS it ain't user friendly although in Linux I use the IP Tables all of the time but those you can copy and paste.

I have a keyboard that has big letters on it and I wished it was illuminated. I just turned sixty and just had a total hip replacement my eyes are getting bad don't know what is going to come next.

yeah I know allied electronics is still around but Lafayette electronics closed along time ago. yeah heathkit had some cool stuff.
I have a neighbor that has a brand new heathkit television that he must have started in the 1970s and has not gotten it to work yet. I told him that if he wanted that I would look at it for him but it is still all wrapped up in his garage. I even offered to buy it from him but no go. it would just be cool to have some that old and brand new.

the poorguy

 

[jmccleary50]

Total hip replacement? Yeah I know about that too. A year in a walker and I had to give up housekeeping. No computer action after that until I landed in assisted living, Internet was dial-up and no Wi-Fi. I had to discover that myself. Went thru a self installation kit from Comcast to establish my own Wi-Fi SSD within my room. 1 year of lousy support and increasing rates and the living facility went Wi-Fi so it's free now.
Well it started with crystal radios and now it's personal devices which are worn at all times like clothing. I once had a cell phone but threw it away. I don't need anyone desperately and no one needs me. That may sound a bit tragic but i'm pretty well satisfied.

 

[poorguy]

well as long as you are happy than that is what matters.

well ok jmccleary have a good evening.

life is good.
the poorguy