Heathkit - Britain's Most Popular Kits

-origin 

Heathkit was an American company that was originally founded in 1912 as the E. B. Heath Aerial Vehicle Company, an aircraft manufacturer, based in Chicago. 

This gives Heathkit one of the more ancient lineages of any computer company, comparable to [@Tandy/Radio Shack|Tandy's] 1919 incorporation or [@IBM]'s 1911 start.

It branched out into electronics kits just after World War II, following the purchase of lots of surplus electronic components, but wouldn't produce a computer until 1977's Heathkit H8. 

This was a computer similar in concept to the famous [#Altair 8800], but for which you could also buy Heathkit peripherals like the [=adve_081|H9 terminal and H10 paper-tape reader].

[picture: heathkit_pracEl_mar71.webp|Some of Heathkit's more consumer-oriented kits.  From Practical Electronics, March 1971]

The main advert shows several popular kits that were available in 1971, including an FM stereo tuner/amplifier. 

Heathkit's kits were often considered to be of high quality and its stereo/hi-fi kits were popular with audiophiles who, as long as they could follow instructions carefully, could produce something that was of a similar quality to a factory unit for a lot less. 

Even so, the tuner still cost £59 - about [[59|1971]] in [[now]] money, and the cabinet to put it in was extra.

