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Heathkit GD-48

D

davidtn

New member
To show you how long ago I started detecting, I bought a Heathkit "metal locator" in the early 70's and soldered the boards and assembled it. It had very little depth of course but I found more wheaties with it than any other detector since (got lucky with the site selection)

Anyone else remember them?

Heathkit Products - GD-48

Heathkit Products
 
I remember Heathkit, but I started with a Relco kit along the same lines. You had to solder the components yourself and it transmitted through a transister radio. I did find a few coins with it and had some fun. It was powerful enough to pick up car almost a foot away. The good old days!
 
"objects as small as a dime to 6 inches" in 1971. :) Wow, great links. Fun reading. Thanx for posting !
 
davidtn said:
To show you how long ago I started detecting, I bought a Heathkit "metal locator" in the early 70's and soldered the boards and assembled it. It had very little depth of course but I found more wheaties with it than any other detector since (got lucky with the site selection)

Anyone else remember them?

Heathkit Products - GD-48

Heathkit Products
Click to expand...

Absolutely.
It was my second detector. I built the thing in just one afternoon in Chicago in 1974 (well into the next AM) so as to have it ready for a weekend hunt.

You see, my first detector was a Relco, or Jetco...I'm always getting them mixed up...blue plastic BFO thing with a 6" coil that wouldn't find anything.
(I remember once seeing a dime on the ground and passing the coil over it...nothing.)

So I thought "I need more power!". A trip to the Heathkit store in Chicago netted me this exact same brown T/R wonder.
Started using it at my wife's parents property...it had more power all right...I had no idea how much junk was in the ground!

Wires, bolts, old sparkplugs, bobby pins, more bobby pins, cigarette package, pull tabs, broken turn signal light bulbs, nails...everything you didn't want.

No discrimination at all, of course. Found an antique iron with it, though. And a bunch of other junk that weekend. As far as coins go, I think I netted a total of 3 pennies.
Soon after that 'experience' I purchased the new 1974 A.H. Pro discriminating metal detector, and a lifetime of metal detecting (and ever newer detectors) was firmly established.

Good times,
:)
mike
 
I built a CG48 in the 1970's. Found a lot of silver coins and relics with it and tons of chewing gum tin foil too. It had good depth at that time, IMO. But my very first detector was made from plans in Popular Mechanics magazine. Had to use a transistor radio with it to get sound. It found me a large piece of buried metal in the fields and finding that piece of metal got me hooked forever. I'm still detecting today with an X-terra705, my best detector yet. Still plenty of old coins and stuff to be found here in NJ.
 
My dad and I built ours together not sure what year in 1970's first find was a Sam Houston button.Had to carry plastic screw driver to tune it on coil.All the coins we found were quarter size and up.Was only detector I have owned that I found silver dollars with and they were just only 5 inches deep.
 
Back in the early 70s I purchased a Heath kit GD-48 in kit form. The upper coil plate cover broke. I have repaired it but I am trying to replace the red, green, black and blue wires to the coil circuit board from the handle but do not know where to solder them back to. The board has points 6-8-7 instead of points A, B and C as the circuit diagram shows. Anyone know how these attach to the board? This was my first detector for years and want to bring it back to life.
 
I may be a little late but I just ran across your post. I have the original construction manual for the GD-48 and I scanned a picture that should help. Back in the 70's a few of us built this detector from scratch. we made out own circuit boards and everything else the only thing that we bought from heath kit was the coil cover. I still have 2 of theses detectors. I hope the diagram helps if not let me know.
 
the heathkit 1190 was the best of all these detectors --- I still have mine, but it no longer works --- would be using it today , if it still worked !
 
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