Heathkit (was RE: partial P112 kits)

Yes, brick and mortar electronics parts stores are a vanishing breed. All the ones I knew as a kid are gone, and nothing is replacing them. The same is true for the surplus market - the old line is just about gone, and very few new guys are stepping up. The 1950s and 60s were the golden era of the electronic kit, with FAR more vendors than today. Even some of the big guns tried the kit business (Hallicrafters and National, to name two), but they could never match the Heathkit standard, so they disappeared quickly. Most of the vendors, like today, were small, and now completely forgotten. If you look in the old trade rags and electronics hobby magazines, you will start to see just how wide the kit business was back then. The resurgence in kits in the last ten years is actually just a little bump in the big picture. -- Will