Heathkit receiver

[Bill W.]

Anybody able to tell me about a Heathkit SS receiver, model AR-1302 ? It was given to me yesterday. The power cord needs to be replaced, several slider knobs ae missing, and it looks like the entire balance control unit is gone. (or at least the shaft is broken) Looks to be otherwise in pretty clean condition. I thought I was fairly familiar with Heathkits, but this is a new model number on me. Heavy son-of-a-gun!
Bill

 

[mhardy6647]

That's the one with the slide controls, isn't it? It's very similar if not identical to one of two older Heathkit receivers, the AR-19 or the AR-29.

Bizarrely, I have found examples of each of the aforementioned Heathkits at our town dump, both in good working order.

I think I have old Heathkit catalogs with your receiver in it: I'll post a scan if I do (and when I can get at the computer with the scanner on it!)

EDIT: aha, here's a photo of the AR-19 (top) and AR-29 (bottom). One of these has a broken off slider "shaft", too... must've been an Achilles' heel for these receivers.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55041&highlight=heathkit

EDIT^2: They are very nicely designed inside and look quite robust for their modest power ratings.

 

[Bill W.]

Yup .... Looks just like the top one in your photo. All black face. I've never been a fan of sliders, I'm a knob man myself. (Read into that what you will!) They just look better, and are easier for my fumble fingers to control. No idea what I'm going to do with this receiver. Probably just part it out for fellow AKer's

Love your avatar BTW ... There must be a good story behind the one-eyed cat. I have a six-toed tabby myself. Big baby, spoiled rotten. He has two eyes though!
Bill

 

[mhardy6647]

The mono kitty is Photoshopped. He's Zappa.
We actually had a no-eyed cat (he lost both to a bout, probably, with toxoplasmosis) -- I am thinking about making him my next avatar.

I like the polydactyl kitties -- like Hemmingway's cats.

EDIT: Here's Zappa in his stereo spendor with his, umm... room-mate, Timmy (the Timorous Tomcat). Not that there's anything wrong with that!

 

[Doug G.]

The AR-1302 replaced the AR-19 in about 1972. The FM section was upgraded but I believe the rest was pretty much the same. It's a 20 watt per channel unit.

Doug

 

[mhardy6647]

Thanks, Doug... as it turns out the Heathkit catalogs I have here (1978 and 79 vintage) don't have the 1302.

I can post scans of the AR-29 and AR-19 info, if anyone's interested.

 

[Doug G.]

Yes, by 1978, Heath had pretty much discontinued that model along with the -29s, etc.

Your kind offer to scan info inspired me to post the ad for the 1302 in a 1972 catalog:

 

[Bill W.]

Zappa and Timmy look to be contented, well spoiled kittys. Goodonya! I always say that there's something wrong with a person that doesn't appreciate cats. My cat Spike is definitely a lap full! He knows better than to use the speaker grilles as a scratching post too! (Keeping this post somewhat on subject.)
Bill

 

[CUlater]

Thanks, Doug... as it turns out the Heathkit catalogs I have here (1978 and 79 vintage) don't have the 1302.

I can post scans of the AR-29 and AR-19 info, if anyone's interested.

I'd love to see the AR-29 catalog listing - I have one, along with a AR-15 as well...

 

[mhardy6647]

okey-dokey... when I can get on the computer with the scanner on it (Mrs. H is there now).

 

[mhardy6647]

These are from Winter 1971 Heathkit catalog.

AR-19:

AR-29:

AR-15:

 

[CUlater]

Super, Mark - Thanks!

 

[Heath]

These are from Winter 1971 Heathkit catalog. AR-19:

MrHardy, Doug G. and others (if you're still here after 6 years!),

I am trying to piece together my half-remembered childhood, and all I have to go on for a Heathkit receiver I made is the attached picture. Based on info from this thread and a lot of other pictures on the net, it seems clear I made either an AR-19 or AR-1302. My pic is from at least 1974. I can't remember if the kit was newly made then or not.

In researching, I could find a few pictures showing the innards of AR-19s and 1302s. In these few pics, the AR-19 had the two big black capacitors as shown in my pic; in the AR-1302 they are silver. IF the internet pics correctly identify their receivers, and Heathkit did not change the color of their capacitors, then I had an AR-19. However, at least in theory, I bet their capacitors could've changed color any time (and back again), since it doesn't matter.

Doug G., in message 5 (above), you said that the 1302 replaced the 19 in 1972 (and showed the "NEW!" ad in message 7). That must be when they stopped selling the AR-19, right? And with Heathkit, there wasn't any "retail channel" that needed to dry up, since one ordered directly from Heathkit (right?). To make a long story short, IF all my assumptions are correct, if I made an AR-19, I must've actually made it by 1972 at the latest (when I was 12), even though this pic is 1974 at least. (I am sure that if we bought it, it would not have sat around - I would have made it quickly.)

(Or is there any other way I can date the receiver and/or its model?)

This is my first post and I hope I haven't strained anyone's patience with this long question. :saywhat: If anyone wants links for the other pictures, I can find them. Also I have a couple of higher-rez scans of similar pics of my own, but unfortunately they are all of almost exactly the same thing as you see.

Thanks if you can help!

Heath (actually Mike )​

 

[mhardy6647]

am I still around? sigh...... yeah

I don't know the answer to any of your questions, sorry. I can say that (at least by 1975 or so) Heathkit did indeed have "retail channels" of sorts - there was a Heathkit store about a mile from my high school in (well, very near) Towson, MD. On Joppa Road. Loved the place & bought a couple of things from them with the meagre funds available to me at the time.

I think that the big caps in the AR-19 down in the basement are silver not black, but it has been many years (more than six) since I looked under the hood. I am doing some slow but steady cleaning downstairs, when I unearth it I can pull out the chassis and document what I find.

I don't know what if any real difference there is/was between the AR-19 and the AR-1302. It seems like the AR-19 and AR-29 went away, and the AR-1302 took their place. The latter is in catalogs at least into 1977, probably even 1978.

 

[Doug G.]

Yoohoo, I'm still here too. Welcome to AK, Mike, and it appears you had an AR-1302.

The capacitor color wouldn't necessarily mean anything since Heathkit used parts from many suppliers and those capacitors wouldn't have been constructed identically from one manufacturer to another.

I have studied a few photos and the AR-19 has four tall square cans, all the same height, right about in the middle of the left side (which are actually coils on the FM IF board) and that board is the middle of the three on that side. The AR-1302 has four different height cans/coils on that board and the FM IF board is the front of the three. (See correction of this mis-statement below.)

The picture of you with your long hippie hair (hehe just kidding) and your Heathkit definitely does not show four cans all of the same height there, thus a 1302.

As far as availability, Heathkit would have stopped marketing the AR-19 when the AR-1302 appeared although there surely would have been a few 19s left in the chain. I would think they would have been gone by 1974 though.

The AR-29 was not discontinued until the 1302 was which was sometime in 1977 or 1978. The AR-19 was short-lived appearing in 1970 and gone in 1972. Evidently, Heathkit recognized some shortcomings with it and replaced it with the AR-1302.

The AR-19 was actually still in the January 1972 catalog but then was gone, replaced by the AR-1302 in the next catalog.

As I said above, the main change between the two were upgrades to the FM section in the 1302.

Oh, and BTW, the picture of the AR-1302 from the 1972 catalog above, in post #7, demonstrates the typical sales/marketing/editing/printing departments accumen as far as representing product accurately. The picture of the interior of the receiver is actually of an AR-19!

Doug

 

[Heath]

Hi!,

MHardy, I didn't realize Heathkit had storefronts... but we were in a small town in SC then, plus it seems unlikely that Heathkit would have enough inventory in the chain to last for years, anyway...

Doug, I reviewed the pics I googled of the inside of these receivers (attached) and can see exactly what you mean - and how it shows that I must have an AR-1302. I can only make out one small can in the middle left of my own pic, just like you said, and just like the AR-1302 pic shows.

>> The AR-19 was actually still in the January 1972 catalog but then was gone, replaced by the AR-1302 in the next catalog. <<

So the AR-1302 first appeared in January 1972 (with AR-19), and AR-19 was gone the next issue? So an earliest-possible date for my AR-1302 is January 1972.

Yes, I was a hippy for 11th grade (1975-76 school year), then took a hard turn into nerdity for my senior year... so then neither the hippies nor the nerds liked me (because I used to be a hippy), and I was an outcast. No matter... I was having enough nerdly fun.

Thanks for replying, both of you... 6 years later!! I doubted anyone would be able to help, but instead, it's totally pinned down.

Mike​

 

[mhardy6647]

heh, you're a year younger than I...

 

[Doug G.]

Actually, the 1302 was not in the January 1972 catalog with the 19. It was in the next one which, back then, would have been around March of 1972.

However, Heathkit also had flyers they mailed out in between the larger catalogs so the 1302 may have been introduced in one of those before March.

I was a high school junior in the 1969-70 year and you can figure the age difference.

EDIT: I made a mistake in my previous post too. The middle board on the left in both models is the FM IF board with the front board being the AM board. You can see that the AM board is pretty much identical in both models.

EDIT II: Also, it appears they replaced the FM IF board that had multiple discrete IF transformer/amplification stages (hence the four "cans" and associated transistors) with one based on the, then new for the time, IC based FM discriminator/IF stages.

Doug

 

[Heath]

MHardy, what a difference a year makes - if it means you held onto your Heathkit (or at least some documentation on it)

Doug, for kicks, I checked the Christmas 1976 (#813) catalog at http://www.wd8afb.com/heath.html ... I see the AR-29 on page 32, but no AR-1302. I guess it was already retired by then. This is actually good for my limited purposes - it puts an upper bound on when I might've ordered it.

By the way - if I recall correctly, my receiver only had a metal top cover which was painted black. I guess that this is what you get if you don't order the wood cabinet?

Thanks again :thmbsp:

Mike​

 

[Doug G.]

"By the way - if I recall correctly, my receiver only had a metal top cover which was painted black. I guess that this is what you get if you don't order the wood cabinet?"

Exactly. In fact, that's the way I bought my original AA-29 (the amplifier section of the AR-29) in March of 1976 and then bought a wood cabinet at the Hopkins MN. Heathkit store a few months later.

It was a whole $19.95 for a pecan cabinet!

The 1302 was still in the summer 1976 catalog and so it disappeared sometime between then and Christmas.

Doug