Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop
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Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop
 
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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 <[hidden email]> To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Not so OT: The Heathkit clocks are back! Message-ID: <[hidden email]> 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 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Re: Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop
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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 > Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
Re: Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop
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In reply to this post by Edward A. Dauer
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 <[hidden email]> 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 [hidden email] www.n6lew.us Generalized Law of Entropy: Sooner or later, everything that has been put together will fall apart. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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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 <[hidden email]> 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 <[hidden email]> 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 > [hidden email] > www.n6lew.us > > Generalized Law of Entropy: Sooner or later, everything that has been put together will fall apart. > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[hidden email] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [hidden email] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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In reply to this post by Edward A. Dauer
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 <[hidden email]> To: "[hidden email]" <[hidden email]> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Heath kit and the Lazarus Loop Message-ID: <[hidden email]> 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 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[hidden email] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email] |
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