I just built a 1976 Heathkit TV kit!

[sparks_elec]

Let me say that if this kit was unopened and not messed with, I would have kept it that way as these are rare.


Years ago I spotted a Heathkit box a thrift store. I opened it and to my surprise it was a tv, unbuilt (later on I found it was half built, and the manual was gone). I bought it for 30 and debated whether I should sell it. I decided it was worth more to have a unused tv that i built, and it had little value being already “half built”. Picture tube was in a separate box that was badly water damaged, but still had vacuum, yessss. I was surprised that all the component parts were there. Some were in original paper packs, most were in 70’s “cool whip” containers and wool and string??? One part was missing but I’ll get to that later.

Started building and it occurred to me that the guy who built 30% of it actually messed it up in several places. 10 or so parts had to be desoldered and moved. Then I discovered the weird 24 ohm 3.2” speaker was badly bent (the paper was good). Amazingly I was able to bend the frame and get it to work (very tricky work). Got it to sound good, well as good a cheap speaker can sound. Then I discovered the video board was broken in several places due to rough handling, just enough to crack the traces (10 to 20), barely seen at all except for the dented IF can. Fixed all those, they were all over the board, looked like spider webs.


After I got an original assembly manual, it made a lot more sense. He just did the first 30 pages and gave up, he only worked on the two pc boards then mounted the HOT and vert out TO-3 transistors. Now I had to get in the mode of building something that was 7 years older than me. I’ve built kits before, but this has to be the most well laid out and high quality kit that I’ve ever seen. The manual shows you exactly how to route wires, place cables, strip wire lengths, types of screws, everything is covered. Actually assembling it was a very time consuming process, but actually fun. I decided to go with all the original parts even though my gut was telling me “buy new electrolytics”, but after testing a few (at rated voltage) they were OK and were soldered in. I like to keep things original if possible. There were some screws missing, and the HV anode lead. Big deal? Not really, I just cut one off a blown flyback I had lying around and it worked.

After a week of on and off assembling, there it was, a finished chassis, no dirt dust or any other age problem. This thing is really new, like you went to 1976 in a time machine and bought a new TV and brought it back to mid 2014. Now, about actually turning it on…… I’m getting nervous.


I plugged the perfectly wrapped (left most of it still factory wrapped) cord into the wall and clicked the switch. It clicked, and nothing. I realized one of it’s two circuit breakers popped. I opened the hinge folded chassis, poured over the manual and after 20 minutes of testing I found the problem. I wired the collector of the vertical output transistor wrong. Quickly fixed that problem and got ready for another power up (hope all those nearly 40 year old capacitors don’t short out). I clicked the power and heard the HV ok then sound, (no smoke, that’s a miracle). I got a raster, but no video or sound. That problem was traced to the tuner output cable, the soldering heat melted the coax, that shorted out the IF signal. After that was settled I plugged it all back in, clicked the switch, then a nail-biting 30 seconds later the picture slowly expanded and the sound got louder. I had it connected to our analog cable tv, the first picture this TV showed was a tonight show with Jimmy Fallon interview with some beautiful actress (what a great first picture to show). Amazing how after sitting never used, this TV powered up and actually works well. Not any wear on it, and no yellowed plastic, it’s a museum piece. Has just 30 minutes of run time on it. They test and align production TVs, and they aren’t almost 40 years old when first powered up.

Anybody else wonder why he didn’t finish the kit?



Amazing!























Letterboxed

[Electronic M]

Nice work! What a cool project.

If I had the funds to buy one, or get somebody to round up all the parts I'd sort of like to build a Heathkit tube color set one day.

[tvcollector]

What Tom said.. Love the style also.. Heathkit had some very neat sets..

[Jon A.]

I'd build any found Heathkit TV and let it do what it was meant to do, rarity be damned. More bragging rights for me anyway. Ideally it would be at least a 19" color set with remote.

[msimendi]

I have a Heathkit 25" color console I got from a co-worker. I fixed it and it is now my daily driver. The documentation and especially the troubleshooting sections are the best I've ever seen. They make a statement in one of the manuals that you can fix this TV knowing nothing about electronics, with the troubleshooting info provided. I believe it!

[Marco-nix]

I have a Heatkit radio that I builted some years a go...Got it from a trift store for $5. Recently I broke a knob and find one will be difficult I think.

[snelson903]

awesome looking set ,nice work.

[MIPS]

Ah, that feeling of building an old kit. Amazing.

You know there's people out there who put this kind of fun with a Heathkit on par with German atrocities.

[ChrisW6ATV]

GR-104C, very nice!

Those cost about $180 as a kit around 1979, far more than a store-bought 12" B&W TV set at the time. But, it was the only set that size with lit channel indicators, and maybe the only one with memory VHF fine tuning as well.

I bought and built that same set, from an electronics surplus store that got some of those from a school or something, so it only cost $88 at the time. I gave mine away in about 1996, and I wish I still had it. The cabinet on mine had indeed yellowed a lot by then.

[JBL GUY]

Great work!

Thanks for the pictures and information.

[Username1]

Looks good ! That's quite a heavy duty chassis on that thing.....
I remember seeing those in the catalogs..... I always wanted to build
a HK TV, I have a solder station, and built a VTVM at our school, they were neat....
We had a HK store in NJ off Rt. 46 I went to several times as a early driver.... Right
next to a Lafayette store..... interesting how many electronics stores use to be around
years ago that catered to the hobbyist, not no more....

.

[DavGoodlin]

Nice job and what a solid set. That looks like a Zenith turret tuner IIRC.

A full power transformer supply was not normally found on sets of that vintage.

Its very possible that the incomplete work was done by someone with poor eyesight. That is a terrible thing to have happen to a hobbyist. I have my own trouble with floaters but I just get up close without my glasses and can see everything.

[Vintv49]

How cool! I used to visit Heathkit stores and built my first Heathkit (and last)in 1963, a Walkie-Talkie, which for a 13 year old boy, was fun to build and more fun to own. We added our own coat-wire ground plane antennas and (oops) blew out the Channel 11 base station dude down the street - half a mile away. I'd love to build that tv…old technology or not. Congratulations and thanks for sharing. Your dog looks happy, too. :-0

[JB5pro]

Admirable

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Nice job and what a solid set. That looks like a Zenith turret tuner IIRC.

A full power transformer supply was not normally found on sets of that vintage.

Its very possible that the incomplete work was done by someone with poor eyesight. That is a terrible thing to have happen to a hobbyist. I have my own trouble with floaters but I just get up close without my glasses and can see everything.

The tuner is a Standard Coil tuner.
Just about every US manufacturer used them.