First-Hand:Heathkit

My first oscilloscope – I remember it well. I built it in the early 1970’s I was young engineer and decided that every electrical engineer needed an oscilloscope, so I bought a Heathkit and proceeded to assemble it. I don’t remember the model number, but it was the one which featured an FET vertical amplifier. It did amplify, but it did drift a bit. The other problem it had was that it did not trigger very well, sometimes not at all! Eventually I got annoyed enough to take the cover off and start tracing out the trigger path. What I found was that the signal went in to a trigger mode wafer switch, but never came out. Closer examination showed that the switch had been improperly assembled and the moving contact never made contact with the stationary contacts. Now Heathkit would have mailed me a new switch had I phoned them, but they had a policy of repairing any problems and the switch was a problem. It was the first thing installed on the front panel. Then you installed the CRT and circuit boards. The net result was that you could see the switch, but you could not get to it without dismantling most of the ‘scope. So, one fine Saturday I packed up the ‘scope and headed over to the Heathkit store. I explained the problem to the tech and he said that they would indeed repair the problem – Then he took the cover off and looked at switch. I think he said something like “Of course we will…Oh Shit!” when the full realization of the task sunk in. They did replace the switch (I have no idea how). The work order for the replacement indicated $1.50 for parts and 4 hours for labor. With the switch replaced, the ‘scope did indeed trigger properly. The vertical amplifier still drifted, but not too badly. This experience did bring home the fact that a lot of the Heathkit products were not really well designed. I used the Oscilloscope for a few years and then gave it away to a friend. That was about 4 oscilloscopes ago. My current ‘scope is a Tek THS730.