HeathKit Automatic Battery Charger Model GP-1044

HeathKit Automatic Battery Charger Model GP-1044

[jameslester]

Hi G, Great find. I built dozens of Heathkits many years ago. I didn't built the battery charger but if you search for Heathkit products in Facebook, there you will find lots of old timers that may be able to help you with the manual. Heathkit is very slowly starting back up. They have a couple of kits available. I built the most accurate clock a couple of months back. Works great.

[larryz]

Grew up with HeathKit, I wish they were still selling radio kits, So, the year you were born I was in VERY sunny and HOT southeast Asia... :-)

[MRrwmac]

Yea the different Heathkits were really very interesting and popular back in my day. Allowed a newb a way to start putting basic understanding of electronics into practical use. Some were pretty expensive but others were more reasonable. Father of a friend of mine told his son that if he wanted a radio he would buy him a HealthKit to put together to make his own radio! Good way to teach DIY. BTW, the son (my friend) didn’t put it together, I did - haha.
They sold at Sears and Roebuck, Monkey Ward and Radio Shack to name a few. Very cool kits! Glad you got yours up and running!

[pjhalchemy]

Nice save and repair G. Will definitely last a long time even with some abuse. Good idea on the cord brackets. My OLD Schauer sure needs them. They are/were great kits of quality. Built many of them and still have the VOM which was comparable to the Simpsons of the day, IMHO. My Dads guitar amp we built lasted from the late 60's when we built it until his passing in 07, and think my brother still has it. Interesting note on them back when I was teaching Electronics in the late 80's-early 90's the school had a deal with them (Heathkit/Zenith) for their trainer kits which went from analog through digital. Really excellent training kits; the breadboard/PS were bullet proof and the curriculum material was pretty thorough.

Their Audio stuff was top of the line, and helped a friend build his tuner and amp and was blown away by the quality and it actually exceeded the specs which were incredible for the day. Sorry for the book here but sure wish they would bring them back, just don't see stuff like this anymore! Thanks for posting this...good memories and great learning over the years. ~PJ

[xxrodneyxx]

Great Vid as always. You've got one year on me G. 1973 here.

[TheFalconJetDriver]

That is a cool word that is a Blast from the Past. When I was 13 years old my neighbor was taking a Bell an Howell correspondence electronics course via the US Mail.
He knew I played with electronics, he was a plumber wanting to learn more about electronics. He bought a Heath Kit Oscilloscope and could not get it to work. He called me over to look at it.. I had a Hickcock VTOM ( vacuum tube volt meter) and a Simpson 261 volt ohm meter.
I looked at his work the tubes were wired correctly the caps were in the correct polarity. So I started probing the filament voltages and noticed none were correct. I noticed the solder joints looked a bit dull. I checked the resistance on the solder joints man were they high.
It turns out he used acid core solder instead of rosin core solder. Acid core is for plumbing.
We tore it apart cleaned and rebuilt the scope.
A few years latter he gave me that scope and I used it for several years until when I got a two channel 100 MHz Techtronics Scope
I gave the Heath kit to an up and coming Ham Rádio enthusiast.

I was born in the mid fifties in the late 60’s I spent a few dollars with Lafayette Electronics another name that will go the same way Sears and Roebuck has gone. I was never a Radio Schack fan when Tandy bought them they carried few electronic parts. They because a consumer toy store. Oh the battery of the month club was good. I still have one of those cards.
Yeah I know I am old, but I know vacuum tube theory.

Thanks for the memories

[willford]

I was in the UK in the early seventies and remember Heathkit products being advertised in HiFi magazines.

[fullwaverecked]

If you haven't found the manual yet, check BAMA.

[Azathoth]

That would have cost $436 in today's money? Damn.

[kwd]

I still have a couple of heathkit products, but not a battery charger..