For Electronic Hobbyists- Heathkits

[johnny333]

Anyone old enough to remember Heathkit

I remember seeing some their ham radio kits being sold at the 2nd floor of Cold Storage(Orchard Rd) in the 70's. Remember seeing their ads in Popular Science for a do-it-yourself kit to assemble a TV

I was curious about what happened to them & found out that they are still around & can be found at: http://www.heathkit.com/
They have morphed into providing education & training. If anyone is interested in learning about electronics, computers, etc, they should consider Heathkit. I suspect you'll get more out of their training material than any education institutions in Spore e.g. ITE & Polys.

 

[Forvendet]

I only remember a DIY radio kit from Thakral. Just a few dollars for a set of electronic board, transistor, tuner, wires and a mini speaker. Had to assemble ourselves, quite fun, and it actually worked though the max volume was low, just enough for the fun but nothing to wake the neighbourhood. Don't know about assembling TV.

 

[johnny333]

Don't know about assembling TV.

Heathkit is not just another DIY kit maker. Back in the old days they had projects for putting together ham radios, oscilloscopes, TV's, computers, etc. You actually learned something while building their kits. It's the education part that your getting.

It was a traditional american company with a reputation for the quality of their manuals. They were bought out by Zenith & the part that has survived is their education arm. Today their training material is used by US colleges & universities. So it's not a kuching kurak organisation like Informatics or ITE

Many years ago I wanted to learn more about electronics & wanted to do part-time courses at Spore's ITE. I gave up the idea because I had difficulty satisfying the prerequisites. They wanted my secondary schools results I only had my University certificates & did not have my secondary school If I had known about what Heathkit was offering, I would have bought some of their material.

 

[Agoraphobic]

Fuck me! I never got into electricity and/or electronics and failed basic EE. As far as I know, electrical engineers can only count till one!

BTW, I had an uncle living in Perak in the 70s who was into Radio Ham then. I was a kid and visited him then and didn't know WTF he was talking about using "moon bounce" in his radio stuff. Sometime later, I was told he saved a ship in distress when he caught an SOS signal off the Andaman Islands while playing around with his Hamset. Pretty cool.

Cheers!

 

[johnny333]

BTW, I had an uncle living in Perak in the 70s who was into Radio Ham then. I was a kid and visited him then and didn't know WTF he was talking about using "moon bounce" in his radio stuff. Sometime later, I was told he saved a ship in distress when he caught an SOS signal off the Andaman Islands while playing around with his Hamset. Pretty cool.

Cheers!

If your uncle was living in Spore it's unlikely he could pursue his hobby.

In Spore there are plenty of restrictions on ownership of radios. Although there are many shops selling radios that can transmit e.g. marine radios, in Sim Lim Tower & Sim Lim Square, they are for export only I've even seen some wireless phones being sold at Mustaffa which can only be sold to export customers

 

[Ramseth]

Sim Lim Tower (not Square) was the original computer and electronics wild wild west. We could get antennae powerful enough to receive everything from Malaysia and Indonesia. For those adults rich enough to afford S$300+/-, satellite dishes were available that can cover the radius from HK to Perth. Then there were the imitation Apples in Apple II days known by all sorts of fruit names, Pineapples, Oranges, Bananas, what have you, available for S$500+/- if you managed to persuade your parents to buy you one. (Original Apple II or IBM XT compatible then cost S$2,500+/-.) For us students in those days, they'd give us free games and software on 5 1/4 floppies. Nice pirates actually. That culture faded away with the completion of Sim Lim Square and most of them were moved there, Apple and Microsoft stepped up anti-piracy pressure on governments and businesses etc.

 

[johnny333]

Sim Lim Tower (not Square) was the original computer and electronics wild wild west. We could get antennae powerful enough to receive everything from Malaysia and Indonesia. For those adults rich enough to afford S$300+/-, satellite dishes were available that can cover the radius from HK to Perth.

You can find satellite receivers being sold for export only. The problem is that you need those large dishes which are a dead give away

 

[Ramseth]

You can find satellite receivers being sold for export only. The problem is that you need those large dishes which are a dead give away

Even in Malaysia, they do spot check. My ex-MIL was threatened with a hefty fine when my ex bro-in-law installed a private (i.e. pirate) satellite dish on her terrace rooftop. She got off with a warning and paid a little coffee money, then switched to subscribing to Astro. The Astro system is much better than the cable system here in Singapore as it's also actually a legalised satellite system. However, it's not feasible in Singapore as 90% of us here are in highrise.

 

[Cestbon]

I only remember a DIY radio kit from Thakral. Just a few dollars for a set of electronic board, transistor, tuner, wires and a mini speaker. Had to assemble ourselves, quite fun, and it actually worked though the max volume was low, just enough for the fun but nothing to wake the neighbourhood. Don't know about assembling TV.

Connect to your home amp and speaker. See what happen.

 

[johnny333]

Even in Malaysia, they do spot check. My ex-MIL was threatened with a hefty fine when my ex bro-in-law installed a private (i.e. pirate) satellite dish on her terrace rooftop. She got off with a warning and paid a little coffee money, then switched to subscribing to Astro. The Astro system is much better than the cable system here in Singapore as it's also actually a legalised satellite system. However, it's not feasible in Singapore as 90% of us here are in highrise.

In KL it's common to see those Astro dishes sticking out of apartment windows, it's only 60cm in diameter. The prices they charge is cheaper than what is being charged in Spore. Indonesians were able to subscribe to Astro services via it's Indonesian partner until they had a business dispute.

There's no reason Sporeans can't access Astro except it's against the law :( Spore banned satellites, I suspect because it wanted to "monopolize $$$" & "control" information flow