JetKing DIY Radio Kits

santaji

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Jan 29, 2019
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Bombay
Hi guys,

Recently I have become very interested in DIY and vintage radios, and while researching online about DIY kits, found out about the JetKing MW and SW kits which were available earlier...

Unfortunately there is not much information or pictures about them online, and they are no longer available. The newest reference to them I could find was in a catalogue of Vega Kit/Gala Electronics from around 2015. I paid them a visit hoping that there would be a few pieces left, but they no longer had them.

I would really like to try finding one or two old stock pieces for my collection. By any chance can anyone suggest some place or contact that might have them left?

Also if anyone has any experience or pictures of the kits, please do share below!
 

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You could try downloading old issues of elektor and maybe find circuits that you can build. Not as easy as buying a ready kiy but doable

If you want to build an amplifier instead of a radio then you could try projects from this site

 
We use to find such Ads regularly in Magazines. During mid 80s, when I was in graduation, The SP road of Bangalore was full of Radio electronics shops (now most of them turned into Mobile/PC/cheap Multi media shops). We could find Type writing training institutes(commerce institutes), Radio Training institutes in every corner of the busy localities. Those electronics shops are so friendly and lots of lots DYI kits for radios and Tape decks. Highly knowledgeable, honest sellers and trainers. A feast for knowledge hunters and hardworking guys. opened up job opportunities for Highschool, 10+2 dropouts, (which was nearly 90% of the students strength). Gone those days... :(
 
Yes JetKing had revolutionized the DIY community in India by taking it to a pro level. EFY magazine was then a must read and I remember a bunch of us used to buy and share.
Like @mahaaprasaad stated electronics market sprouted in 1st tier cities who started selling several project kits.
 
oh wow!

I remember JetKing, very popular Kit manufacturer in 80s India. Some may also remember Kit n' Spares, who used to supply kits for most of the popular projects from EFY.

EFY used to publish an Annual Version called Electronics Projects which was essentially a collection of Projects and Circuit Ideas from the monthly EFY magazines through the year. These volumes used to have references to Kit n' Spares for kits.

Here are some pages from the Electronics Projects, 4th Volume which was published in 1986 which outlines a pocket radio build (apparently JetKing GURU. 'Courtesy JetKing KITs' is mentioned at the end of the article) with reference to Kit availability with Kit n' Spares. It is possible that Kit n' Spares was actually selling the JetKing kit itself.

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oh wow!

I remember JetKing, very popular Kit manufacturer in 80s India. Some may also remember Kit n' Spares, who used to supply kits for most of the popular projects from EFY.

EFY used to publish an Annual Version called Electronics Projects which was essentially a collection of Projects and Circuit Ideas from the monthly EFY magazines through the year. These volumes used to have references to Kit n' Spares for kits.

Here are some pages from the Electronics Projects, 4th Volume which was published in 1986 which outlines a pocket radio build (apparently JetKing GURU. 'Courtesy JetKing KITs' is mentioned at the end of the article) with reference to Kit availability with Kit n' Spares. It is possible that Kit n' Spares was actually selling the JetKing kit itself.

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Rs 110 here, was Rs 70 when my dad got me one in school
 
I remember partially succeeding with the jetking kit on my second attempt in late 1980s- had to buy 2 of them since I screwed up one on the first attempt. Btw, there is a Tecsun kit and one other kit available on fab2lab which look somewhat similar to the jetking kit. Disclaimer: never tried the Tecsun/and no affiliation with fab2lab
 
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Hi guys,

Recently I have become very interested in DIY and vintage radios, and while researching online about DIY kits, found out about the JetKing MW and SW kits which were available earlier...

Unfortunately there is not much information or pictures about them online, and they are no longer available. The newest reference to them I could find was in a catalogue of Vega Kit/Gala Electronics from around 2015. I paid them a visit hoping that there would be a few pieces left, but they no longer had them.

I would really like to try finding one or two old stock pieces for my collection. By any chance can anyone suggest some place or contact that might have them left?

Also if anyone has any experience or pictures of the kits, please do share below!
I did assemble a MW radio way back in the late 60's from the Jetking kit. Navbharat Radio Agencies, Lamington Road, Mumbai (Next to Lamington Road Police station) were the selling agents then. Their tag line was " Ideas dont know where they start, start from Jetking". The entire kit costed around Rs.65 to 70/-. It consisted of Hitachi transistors, IFTs' and Oscillator coil, Ferrite rod & coil, resistors, disc capacitors, etc with Gang condenser. Arun, was their main technical guy who would guide diy school going children on how to assemble.

Later, I think they got out of this business and started a computer training institute. Even today, there is some shop in the same place which appears to be selling computer HW or something.

Nostalgia!
 
I did assemble a MW radio way back in the late 60's from the Jetking kit. Navbharat Radio Agencies, Lamington Road, Mumbai (Next to Lamington Road Police station) were the selling agents then. Their tag line was " Ideas dont know where they start, start from Jetking". The entire kit costed around Rs.65 to 70/-. It consisted of Hitachi transistors, IFTs' and Oscillator coil, Ferrite rod & coil, resistors, disc capacitors, etc with Gang condenser. Arun, was their main technical guy who would guide diy school going children on how to assemble.

Later, I think they got out of this business and started a computer training institute. Even today, there is some shop in the same place which appears to be selling computer HW or something.

Nostalgia!
Yes sir, they are out of their business and have opened computer training classes.
 
Hi guys,

Recently I have become very interested in DIY and vintage radios, and while researching online about DIY kits, found out about the JetKing MW and SW kits which were available earlier...

Unfortunately there is not much information or pictures about them online, and they are no longer available. The newest reference to them I could find was in a catalogue of Vega Kit/Gala Electronics from around 2015. I paid them a visit hoping that there would be a few pieces left, but they no longer had them.

I would really like to try finding one or two old stock pieces for my collection. By any chance can anyone suggest some place or contact that might have them left?

Also if anyone has any experience or pictures of the kits, please do share below!
Hi Santaji,
This is Nikita from Jetking Family, we definately dont have extra pieces as manufacturing was stopped. However if you want you can drop into our Head office and have a look at it
 
Hi Santaji,
This is Nikita from Jetking Family, we definately dont have extra pieces as manufacturing was stopped. However if you want you can drop into our Head office and have a look at it

Such dedication for this hobby! Despite no business interest! That's commendable!

Welcome to the forum, and hopefully Santaji or anyone else interested can take advantage of your generous offer.
 
Hi Santaji,
This is Nikita from Jetking Family, we definately dont have extra pieces as manufacturing was stopped. However if you want you can drop into our Head office and have a look at it
Welcome Nikita! Nice to have someone from Jetking here.
Please do let us know if you still have any old stock of DIY kits...I am sure many of us (including me) would be interested in purchasing.
 
Hi guys,

Recently I have become very interested in DIY and vintage radios, and while researching online about DIY kits, found out about the JetKing MW and SW kits which were available earlier...

Unfortunately there is not much information or pictures about them online, and they are no longer available. The newest reference to them I could find was in a catalogue of Vega Kit/Gala Electronics from around 2015. I paid them a visit hoping that there would be a few pieces left, but they no longer had them.

I would really like to try finding one or two old stock pieces for my collection. By any chance can anyone suggest some place or contact that might have them left?

Also if anyone has any experience or pictures of the kits, please do share below!
Don't they sell kits on lamington road mumbai anymore? Or Chandni Chowk new Delhi?
 
Welcome Nikita! Nice to have someone from Jetking here.
Please do let us know if you still have any old stock of DIY kits...I am sure many of us (including me) would be interested in purchasing.
Yes, would love to know if they have any left over from old stock.
 
Such dedication for this hobby! Despite no business interest! That's commendable!

Welcome to the forum, and hopefully Santaji or anyone else interested can take advantage of your generous offer.
Just saw her reply and DM'd her. Will definitely go take a look and hopefully some pics as well!
Don't they sell kits on lamington road mumbai anymore? Or Chandni Chowk new Delhi?
Gala Electronics/Vegakit on Lamington Road had the kits listed on the last catalogue from 2014 or 2015, but they don't have them anymore. If they were available just 7 years ago, then surely there is some hope that there is at-least one kit gathering dust in some shop somewhere :D

Yes, would love to know if they have any left over from old stock.

It looks like I am not alone in wanting to get hold of this piece of history.. Maybe it would be possible to reverse engineer the old kits and get PCBs made? I'm sure the case could be 3D printed.

I actually built one of the similar Chinese kits recently and documented the process on my Instagram. @_electroidiot
 

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Just saw her reply and DM'd her. Will definitely go take a look and hopefully some pics as well!

Gala Electronics/Vegakit on Lamington Road had the kits listed on the last catalogue from 2014 or 2015, but they don't have them anymore. If they were available just 7 years ago, then surely there is some hope that there is at-least one kit gathering dust in some shop somewhere :D



It looks like I am not alone in wanting to get hold of this piece of history.. Maybe it would be possible to reverse engineer the old kits and get PCBs made? I'm sure the case could be 3D printed.

I actually built one of the similar Chinese kits recently and documented the process on my Instagram. @_electroidiot
Great, the ferrite rod antenna, the gang condenser the tuning coils …. Fond memories of the good old days
 
Hi. I'm new to this forum and stumbled across it while searching for information about the Jetking Guru 'pocket' radio kit I built in 1983, while still at school, with the invaluable help and guidance of a teacher. This was my first venture into electronics and also into radio construction. My parents bought me the kit from Calcutta (now Kolkata) Book Fair.
I am most thankful to reubensm who has kindly shared the scans from his/her copy of Electronics Projects. I no longer have the radio I built, but recall that it performed very well in the eighties, when electrical RF interference was exceedingly low. Due to the germanium transistors and push-pull circuit used in the AF section, the audio quality was excellent too. The radio failed after a couple of years due to reasons unknown to me at the time. More recently I found out that one of the likely reasons could have been inherent manufacturing defects of the 'lockfit' style of transistors used in the radio. This type of transistor was later withdrawn and the packaging changed to TO92.
Jetking has had me addicted to electronics ever since. No doubt there are many others like me too.
 
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