General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

metal casing with synthetic cover/ synthetic and metal circuit boards, components, controls and parts/ wood parts/ paper label

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

48.5 cm

Width

24.0 cm

Height

14.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Communications

Category

Radio

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Heathkit

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Michigan

City

Benton Harbor

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Quebec

Period

1978+

Canada

An amplifier purchased as a kit from a Canadian retail outlet of the American electronics hobby kit firm Heath Co. and presumably assembled and used in Canada.

Function

Generally an amplifier is a device which magnifies the strength of a input signal and outputs a larger signal without altering the characteristics of that signal. This example was used to amplify audio signals.

Technical

An example of a Heathkit amplifier of the mid to late 1970s. Heathkits were products of the Heath Co. of Benton Harbor, MI. They sold electronic equipment in kit form for assembly by the purchaser, including electronic test equipment, home audio equipment, television receivers, hobbyist computers and amateur radio equipment such as this amplifier. The Heath Co. was founded as an aircraft company in the early 1900s By Edward Bayard Heath, by 1926 selling light aircraft in kit form. After WWII, Heath Co. entered the electronic industry by buying a large stock of surplus wartime electronics parts to make kits for sale. The first product was an oscilloscope and after its success, the product line was expanded. The premise was that the purchaser could assemble the kit at home and have a product that comparable in quality to a factory-built item at a much lower cost. Heath's success was due to its instruction manuals, which contained simple , non-technical instructions and diagrams. In the mid 1960s Heath established retail outlets and service centres. By the 1980s the continued development of integrated electronic components and the mass production of electronic equipment made Heathkits less economical and the market declined. 1992 Heath stopped producing kits but still exists today as a producer of educational materials (Refs. 2&3). The Heathkit AA-1506 Basic Power Amplifier provided a power output of 60 watts minimum RMS per channel when operating into an 8-ohm load with less than 0.1% total harmonic distortion from 20 to 20,000 Hz. (Ref. 1)

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

none

Missing

unknown

Finish

grey casing with white top/ metallic and block, red and white controls/ multicoloured circuit boards and components

Decoration

N/A