Re: Sayonara, good people

["John O" <johno@!noSPAM!heathkit.com>]

> It's the same company.  Their educational division has been around for
> something like 30 years.  The consumer products division died, presumably
> due to competitive pressure from RatShak and such.

Yep on the first part. The kits went away for lots of reasons, in no
particular order:

component integration
Zenith Radio Corp (cash drain)
total lack of creative marketing (catalog or nothing!)
competition with new hobbies (computers)
a lack of patience in kit builders (let's splash some solder on here)
some crappy kits (HW-9, ID-5001, Hero 2000, etc)
Zenith Data Systems (gov't contracts trumped all else)
Groupe Bull (owned by the French gov't from 1990 to 1994...need I say more?)

-John O