Re: [Elecraft] Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop

[w7aqk]

Lew and All,

Heath wasn't the only casualty of the tech explosion.  There were dead 
bodies all over the place!  Even Microsoft might have cratered if IBM hadn't 
failed to recognize the importance of DOS!


It's really amazing what we have seen in just 25 years or so.  I paid a 
small fortune in late '89 for a Zenith laptop, and since then, I haven't 
spent more than a fraction of that for a laptop.  We've gone from big 
floppies to no floppies--from hard drives that only held  a few MB's, to 
ones now that hold many TB's.  RAM was only a few KB's, and now it is many 
GB's, and that's just what we use at home on our desks.


It reminds me of the thought provoking comment I read some time back--it 
says something like--"You receive a birthday card--one that plays the song 
Happy Birthday" to you.  You listen to it, admire the card a while, and then 
soon casually toss it into the waste basket, thereby throwing away more 
computing power than existed in the world in 1948!!!


Dave W7AQK



From: Lewis Phelps <l...@n6lew.us>
To: "elecraft@mailman.qth.net" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop
Message-ID: <40076fad-3207-43b0-821c-61766d7bc...@n6lew.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Heathkit was at the forefront of the personal computer revolution.  Their 
H-8 was one of the earliest 8-bit computers, and the H-89 one of the first 
Z-80 machines, as well as being the first ?all in one? computer that 
combined the keyboard, monitor, and processor into a single enclosure.  I 
used an H-89 as a word processor for a number of years, upgrading it with 
aftermarket products (which were plentiful) to the first-ever silicon drive, 
in lieu of a 5 inch floppy. It didn?t have ?permanent? memory, so you had to 
copy files a a floppy before shutting down, but it sure accelerated the word 
processing speed.  The Z-80 (an enhanced 8080 chip made by Zilog) addressed 
64K of memory, and the operating system (CP/M) used about 39K, which didn?t 
leave much space for the word processing app and the document file.  There 
was a lot of swapping of chunks of instruction in and out of memory.


They didn?t keep up with the advances in technology forever, but I think 
that was due more to a lack of capital than a lack of focus. Their 16-bit 
machines never caught on in the face of the IBM PC onslaught.


Lew N6LEW 


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Re: [Elecraft] Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop

[Brian Denley]

Still have my Heathkit ET-3400 and ETA-3400.  Learned 6800 assembly language on 
that pair before moving up to a OSI C1-P.  It would be great to see Heathkit 
back to something fun.  I was bummed when my K2/100 rig was finished.

Brian 
KB1VBF
Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 9, 2016, at 7:08 PM, Lewis Phelps  wrote:
> 
> Heathkit was at the forefront of the personal computer revolution.  Their H-8 
> was one of the earliest 8-bit computers, and the H-89 one of the first Z-80 
> machines, as well as being the first “all in one” computer that combined the 
> keyboard, monitor, and processor into a single enclosure.  I used an H-89 as 
> a word processor for a number of years, upgrading it with aftermarket 
> products (which were plentiful) to the first-ever silicon drive, in lieu of a 
> 5 inch floppy. It didn’t have “permanent” memory, so you had to copy files a 
> a floppy before shutting down, but it sure accelerated the word processing 
> speed.  The Z-80 (an enhanced 8080 chip made by Zilog) addressed 64K of 
> memory, and the operating system (CP/M) used about 39K, which didn’t leave 
> much space for the word processing app and the document file.  There was a 
> lot of swapping of chunks of instruction in and out of memory.  
> 
> They didn’t keep up with the advances in technology forever, but I think that 
> was due more to a lack of capital than a lack of focus. Their 16-bit machines 
> never caught on in the face of the IBM PC onslaught.
> 
> Lew N6LEW
> 
> 
> 
>> On Aug 8, 2016, at 12:47 PM, Dauer, Edward  wrote:
>> 
>> It may be that Heath’s demise came less from a lack of entrepreneurship than 
>> from a lack of focus on the market where it had mastered its route to 
>> success.  The introduction of personal computers at around the same time 
>> probably played a role as well. 
> 
> Lew Phelps N6LEW
> Pasadena, CA DM04wd
> Elecraft K3-10 / KXV144 / XV432
> Yaesu FT-7800 
> l...@n6lew.us
> www.n6lew.us
> 
> Generalized Law of Entropy: Sooner or later, everything that has been put 
> together will fall apart.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> __
> Elecraft mailing list
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Re: [Elecraft] Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop

[Lewis Phelps]

Heathkit was at the forefront of the personal computer revolution.  Their H-8 
was one of the earliest 8-bit computers, and the H-89 one of the first Z-80 
machines, as well as being the first “all in one” computer that combined the 
keyboard, monitor, and processor into a single enclosure.  I used an H-89 as a 
word processor for a number of years, upgrading it with aftermarket products 
(which were plentiful) to the first-ever silicon drive, in lieu of a 5 inch 
floppy. It didn’t have “permanent” memory, so you had to copy files a a floppy 
before shutting down, but it sure accelerated the word processing speed.  The 
Z-80 (an enhanced 8080 chip made by Zilog) addressed 64K of memory, and the 
operating system (CP/M) used about 39K, which didn’t leave much space for the 
word processing app and the document file.  There was a lot of swapping of 
chunks of instruction in and out of memory.  

They didn’t keep up with the advances in technology forever, but I think that 
was due more to a lack of capital than a lack of focus. Their 16-bit machines 
never caught on in the face of the IBM PC onslaught.

Lew N6LEW



> On Aug 8, 2016, at 12:47 PM, Dauer, Edward  wrote:
> 
> It may be that Heath’s demise came less from a lack of entrepreneurship than 
> from a lack of focus on the market where it had mastered its route to 
> success.  The introduction of personal computers at around the same time 
> probably played a role as well. 

Lew Phelps N6LEW
Pasadena, CA DM04wd
Elecraft K3-10 / KXV144 / XV432
Yaesu FT-7800 
l...@n6lew.us
www.n6lew.us

Generalized Law of Entropy: Sooner or later, everything that has been put 
together will fall apart.





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Re: [Elecraft] Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop

[Richard Fjeld]

I seem to remember a 2 meter mobile that got recalled and shredded per 
FCC direction not long before the company closed down.


Dick, n0ce

Ohm sweet Ohm


On 8/8/2016 2:47 PM, Dauer, Edward wrote:

I remembered Heathkit as having first been an airframe manufacturer which got 
into electronics after the War.  I just checked the history, one version of 
which can be found here:  http://www.heathkit.nu/heathkit_nu_HeathStory.html.

Apparently the company was sold to Daystrom as early as 1955.  Zenith bought it 
in 1979, after the company had diversified far afield from the electronics kit 
market. My first TX was a DX-20, which I built in 1957.  I remember later kits 
coming out into at least the middle 70s.  My last one was an HW-101, more or 
less 1973, and there were several years of good kits after that.  So it lasted 
at least that long under Daystrom, a substantial corporation by that time.

It may be that Heath’s demise came less from a lack of entrepreneurship than 
from a lack of focus on the market where it had mastered its route to success.  
The introduction of personal computers at around the same time probably played 
a role as well.  It would be interesting to know whether any of the MBAs on the 
list know of a Heath Inc. B-school case.

The “Lazarus Loop” may be well named – apparently the company had cycled 
through bankruptcy more than once even in its early days.  The site noted above 
tells the tale.

R.I.P.

Ted, KN1CBR


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[Elecraft] Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop

[Dauer, Edward]

I remembered Heathkit as having first been an airframe manufacturer which got 
into electronics after the War.  I just checked the history, one version of 
which can be found here:  http://www.heathkit.nu/heathkit_nu_HeathStory.html.   

Apparently the company was sold to Daystrom as early as 1955.  Zenith bought it 
in 1979, after the company had diversified far afield from the electronics kit 
market. My first TX was a DX-20, which I built in 1957.  I remember later kits 
coming out into at least the middle 70s.  My last one was an HW-101, more or 
less 1973, and there were several years of good kits after that.  So it lasted 
at least that long under Daystrom, a substantial corporation by that time. 

It may be that Heath’s demise came less from a lack of entrepreneurship than 
from a lack of focus on the market where it had mastered its route to success.  
The introduction of personal computers at around the same time probably played 
a role as well.  It would be interesting to know whether any of the MBAs on the 
list know of a Heath Inc. B-school case.

The “Lazarus Loop” may be well named – apparently the company had cycled 
through bankruptcy more than once even in its early days.  The site noted above 
tells the tale.

R.I.P.

Ted, KN1CBR
--

Message: 30
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2016 12:01:37 -0700 (MST)
From: ab2tc 
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Not so OT: The Heathkit clocks are back!
Message-ID: <1470682897444-7621377.p...@n2.nabble.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi,

I share the feelings of most of the most recent posters. I have no idea who
is behind the new P.O. box in Santa Cruz which according to Wikipedia was
established in October 2015. I wish them luck, crossing my fingers, but not
holding much hope for their success.

Now, to the OT: part. Elecraft is living proof that the demise of Heathkit
didn't have to be an inevitable thing. Heathkit died, not only because
technology changed but more so by serious corporate mismanagement. Once the
original company was sold to Zenith, the writing was on the wall. Had
entrepreneurial folks, that were probably very similar in talent to Eric and
Wayne remained in control, Heathkit could have survived to this day. I am
one of the old-timers who remembers the heyday of Heathkit and considers its
demise nothing short of a national tragedy (yes, we built Heathkits in
Norway, too).

AB2TC - Knut
 

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