Steve Jobs and Heathkit

In my book Classic Heathkit Electronic Test Equipment I mentioned under Heathkit trivia that Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs built some Heathkits as a teenager. I found this link to a full video of a 1995 Steve Jobs interview as well as this transcript. Here is the portion of the discussion where he mentions Heathkit:

I got to know this man, whose name was Larry Lang, and he taught me a lot of electronics. He was great. He used to build Heathkits. Heathkits were really great. Heathkits were these products that you would buy in kit form. You actually paid more money for them than if you just went and bought the finished product if it was available. These Heathkits would come with these detailed manuals about how to put this thing together and all the parts would be laid out in a certain way and color coded. You'd actually build this thing yourself.

I would say that this gave one several things. It gave one an understanding of what was inside a finished product and how it worked because it would include a theory of operation. But maybe even more importantly it gave one the sense that one could build the things that one saw around oneself in the universe. These things were not mysteries any more. I mean you looked at a television set you would think that "I haven't built one of those but I could. There's one of those in the Heathkit catalog and I've built two other Heathkits so I could build that."

In related news, my book is now available from Amazon.com and most country-specific Amazon sites like amazon.de and amazon.co.uk (but unfortunately, not amazon.ca). This will give the book much wider exposure although I'd prefer people order from lulu.com as Amazon takes as much larger commission from the authors.

Book Updates

My new book Classic Heathkit Electronic Test Equipment has been well received and is well on it's way to meeting my goal of selling over 100 copies before the end of the year. I've received many positive comments from the first purchasers of the book.

I've created a spotlight page on lulu.com with information about the book as well as some relevant links. I've also created a web page for errata and updates on my home page. I expect lulu.com will be offering some kind of sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday with possible discounts, so watch their site for updates.

I also spent some time on my YouTube channel, adding some categories, a welcome video, and graphics. I'm continuing to make YouTube videos of Heathkit equipment there, most recently on the IT-17 Tube Checker, GR-81 Economy SWL Receiver, IP-17 Low-Voltage Regulated Power Supply, and IM-2215 Portable Digital Multimeter.

Finally, I got some some nice coverage on Bill Meara's SolderSmoke blog. I have followed his podcast and blog for several years and encourage you to check it out. You may also find his book SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics of interest. I purchased a copy and really enjoyed it.

My New Heathkit Book Has Been Published!

My blog postings here have dropped off in the last six months or so because I have been busy on a project which has now been completed. I am proud to announce the release of my new book Classic Heathkit Electronic Test Equipment. It is now available for purchase here. You can get all the details on the book at that site as well as place an order for it. I hope some of the readers of this blog find the book of interest.

8080 Disassembler

I've ordered an Altair 8800 replica computer from Briel Computers. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I've been reading up on the 8080 microprocessor, the Altair 8800, and CP/M operating system.

For fun I wrote an 8080 assembly language disassembler to help understand 8080 machine language and in preparation for playing with some 8080 assembler programs. I also used it as an opportunity to get more familiar with the Python programming language. It's the first significant program I've written in Python and it was relatively painless to code.

You can get the source code here. The program reads a binary file specified on the command line and produces a disassembly. It requires Python 3. It has been tested on Linux but should work on any platform that supports Python. See the source code for more details.

Here is some sample output using the first example program in the Altair 8800 manual:

% ./disasm8080.py ex2.bin 
0000            org     $0000
0000  3A 80 00  lda     $0080
0003  47        mov     b,a
0004  3A 81 00  lda     $0081
0007  80        add     b
0008  32 82 00  sta     $0082
000B  C3 00 00  jmp     $0000
000E            end

I implemented a number of options to control the output format such as the start address and whether to show the hex bytes or just instructions.

I'd say about one third of the effort was coding, one third was entering the table of 8080 instructions, and one third was learning how to do various things in Python, like reading a binary file and manipulating strings.

If is free software released under the Apache License. Give it a try if you are interested.

Heathkit HW-8 Update

Heathkit HW-8 with Headphones and Code Key

The Heathkit HW-8 QRP Transceiver I bought on eBay arrived safe and sound. It was well packed with the original box inside. The radio is very clean and has had no modifications done to it. It seemed to be basically working out of the box. It included the original manual with fold out schematic and pictorial pages. It even came with one of the two original plastic alignment tools!

Original Box, Manual, and Alignment Tool

According to a hand written note in the manual some the front end toroid coils were assembled incorrectly (in the wrong locations). Looking at the manual and the radio confirmed it. It also appeared to be not as sensitive on the 3.5 and 7.0 MHz bands as it should be. I removed the toroids (which was quite a job as the PCB needed to be partially removed to get at them) and reinstalled the coils correctly. Someone had installed an extra capacitor on the bottom of the PCB across 40M trimmer cap to compensate for the inductance of the wrong coil; I removed that too.

Top Cover Removed Showing PCB

The mystery is, who figured out that the toroids were wrong - the original builder or someone later? Kudos to whoever figured it out, but why didn't they fix it? Anyway, after 30 plus years the radio is now working as it should.

Rear Panel

After the fixes and doing a full alignment it seems quite sensitive on all bands. It is quite selective when set to Narrow selectivity, good for situations when there are several nearby CW stations being received. It is simple to operate and while it isn't full break-in, it is pretty close.

Front Panel

As I speak, it is on the bench and receiving a very strong signal from W1AW's evening code practice on 40 meters. I'm looking forward to trying it out on the air and seeing if I can make some contacts. I'm also planning to do an in-depth YouTube video about the radio.

Unbuilt Heathkits on eBay

Heathkits, especially the amateur radio kits, are pretty popular items on eBay and typically sell for more than they did new back in the day when Heathkit was still in business.

I recently saw an unassembled HW-8 offered on Bay. As I write this, the auction still has four days to go and is up to US$455.

An Unbuilt Heathkit HW-8 Transceiver

Unassembled kits are the holy grail of Heathkit collectors. The opportunity to get your hands on an unbuilt kit is exciting. As you can imagine, these don't come up often as very few people would have purchased a kit years ago and never built it. There are likely some fakes out there as well, i.e. a unit that may have been all or partially assembled which is then disassembled and sold as an unbuilt kit.

I took a look at unbuilt Heathkits that have sold on eBay over the last few months to see what I could glean. Here are the items with the highest selling prices over the last few months that I found:

Complete Heathkit HW9 QRP Station – UNBUILT Unassembled Kits $1,958.56
Unbuilt Unassembled Heathkit SB-104A Ham Transceiver $1,720.74
RARE UNBUILT Unassembled Heathkit 200 Watt Amplifier KIT AA-2010/2004 4 Channel $1,701.65
NIB Unbuilt Unassembled Heathkit SB-104A Ham Transceiver unopened boxes $1,500.00
Heathkit HW-101 Radio Transceiver, unbuilt, rare $1,450.00
Heathkit SB-230 HF amplifier kit, unbuilt, unopened $1,325.00
Unassembled / Unbuilt Heathkit HW-101 Amateur / Ham HF SSB Transceiver Kit $1,300.00
Unbuilt Heathkit SW-7800 Receiver $1,111.00
Unbuilt BELL HOWELL Heathkit Oscilloscope TVM Sine/Square Generator/Power Supply $813.20 (no bids)
Heathkit rare unbuilt Vacuum Tube Voltmeter IM-18 $711.00
Vintage Heath Heathkit TA-16 Combo Guitar Amp Unassembled Unbuilt NOS Rare $700.00
Heathkit rare unbuilt Vacuum Tube Voltmeter IM-28 VTVM Unassembled FREE SHIPPING $695.00
Unbuilt Heathkit AR-1219 AM/FM Stereo Receiver Complete Unassembled Kit $688.90
Unbuilt Heathkit HW-9 HF Multi-Band QRP Transceiver $608.00
Heathkit SP-2 Stereo/Mono Tube Preamp Kit unbuilt Preamplifier SP2 $599.00
NEW! Unbuilt / Unassembled Heathkit HW-9 Deluxe QRP Transceiver Kit $595.00
New Unassembled / Unbuilt! Heathkit HX-1681 CW Amateur / Ham Transmitter Kit $587.83
HEATHKIT WEATHER STATION ID-4001 UNBUILT RARE $577.77
Heathkit PS-23 Power supply, unbuilt, rare $500.00
heathkit Unbuilt IG 102 RF Signal Generator $500.00 (no bids)
Unbuilt Heathkit SA-2060A High Power Roller Inductor Antenna Tuner $500.00 (no bids)
UNBUILT . . Vintage1970s Heathkit ID-4001 Weather Station Kit . . UNASSEMBLED $431.00
UNBUILT . . . 1970s Heathkit SB-650 Digital Display Kit . . . UNASSEMBLED $417.93
New Unassembled / Unbuilt Heathkit GW-32D CB Citizens Band Transceiver Kit $379.95
Huge Lot of Unbuilt Heathkit SB-104 Parts $378.50
Unassembled / Unbuilt Heathkit GW-32A Citizens Band CB Transceiver Kit $355.00
HEATHKIT UNBUILT MODEL 10-102 OSCILLOSCOPE $350.00
NEW Unbuilt / Unassembled! Heathkit GR-740 40-Channel Scanner Kit $348.93
Unbuilt HEATHKIT IG-5280 RF Signal Generator Unassembled+EICO Knight-Kit Surveys $331.20
 Unbuilt Heathkit ETA-3400 Memory I/O option for ET-3400 - Unassembled in BOX $310.00
Unbuilt Heathkit ETA-3400 Microprocessor Expansion Accessory Unit For ET-3400 $300.00
UNBUILT HEATHKIT HM-9A QRP WATT METER HF OR VHF UNASSEMBLED KIT NEW Ham Amateur $299.99
 Heathkit ET-3400 Microprocessor Trainer UNBUILT $295.00
HEATHKIT UNBUILT MODEL 10-102 OSCILLOSCOPE Unassembled. $295.00
HEATHKIT UNBUILT MODEL 10-12 - 5" OSCILLOSCOPE $285.00
UNBUILT HEATHKIT ET-3400A MICROPROCESSOR TRAINER w/3401 DOCUMENTATION & TRAINING $284.99
Unbuilt Heathkit - IT-5283 signal tracer- new in box - unassembled $268.00
Heathkit kit Digital Alarm Clock (Unbuilt kit from 1977 - in the original box) $264.00
Unbuilt Kit Eico 635 Tube Tester Vintage NOS partial build Heathkit $256.56
Unbuilt Unassembled Heathkit SB-634 Station Console UnBuilt Heathkit !! L@@K !! $255.00
Heathkit kit Digital Alarm Clock (Unbuilt kit from 1977 - in the original box) $255.00
Heathkit ET-4200 Laser Trainer Unopened, Unbuilt $250.00
Heathkit IM-4100 Frequency Counter Unbuilt Kit $235.50
1 Vintage HEATHKIT Unbuilt Model IM-2420 512 MHZ Frequency Counter Kit $233.01
Heathkit Gc-1108 Digital Alarm Clock- Opened, Never Taken Out Of Box, Unbuilt $230.00
NEW! Unbuilt / Unassembled Heathkit HWA-9 Band Pack Kit for HW-9 QRP Transceiver $227.50
Heathkit Gc-1107, Digital Alarm Clock, Unopened, Unbuilt, Sealed $225.00
New Unassembled / Unbuilt! Heathkit HP-23A Power Supply Kit $213.51
Automotive-Heathkit Exhaust Gas Analyzer Model CI-1080 (UNBUILT!!!) $212.50

From this data I can make a few observations. Amateur radio equipment seems to be the most popular, followed by test equipment. No surprises here -- these were Heathkit's bread and butter. These units are still useful for what they were originally intended for. By contrast, a Heathkit computer from the 1970s or 1980s, for example, is not very useful as a computer and only appeals to retrocomputing nostalgia buffs, so these typically don't have as high a value.

Probably the HW QRP series (HW-7, HW-8, HW-9) are selling for the most relative to their original selling price, although the sample size here may be too low to be significant.

The third most popular category appears to be general items like clocks and weather stations which are still useful today and have a big nostalgia value.

The real question that comes to mind when one imagines buying one of these, is whether you would actually build the kit, or keep it as an investment to sell in the future. Or (perish the thought) part it out as separate pieces to sell individually. Personally I don't plan to spend my money at the prices these are going for but it's fun to think about it.

Scored a Heathkit HW-8

I have been looking for a transceiver in Heathkit HW QRP series to round out my collection of Heathkit amateur radio equipment. I settled on looking for an HW-8.

The Heathkit HW-8

The HW-7, first in the series, had a number of issues and limitations. The HW-8 was a much improved design.

The Heathkit HW-7

The HW-9, which came later, is much rarer, and had the brown color scheme of the last generation of Heathkits with I don't find attractive. There is an HW-99 which is even rarer, is in the brown scheme, and is said to suffer from some serious drift problems. It is also not a QRP transceiver.

The Heathkit HW-9

I scored an HW-8 on eBay which was in great condition. It came with the original manual and even the original box! Interestingly, while it came from Phoenix, Arizona, the box indicated it was from the Heath Company store in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. That is where I grew up and got my ham radio license - I made many visits to that Heathkit store admiring the ham radio, computer, and other kits.

Heathkit HW-8 with original box and manual

I also ordered a CD version of The HW-8 Handbook from QRPARCI, which has a collection of articles on HW-7, HW-8, and HW-9 that were published over the years.

The major features of this rig include:

• 4 band operation (80, 40, 20, 15) on the low end (CW portion) of each band
• about 3 watts of output power
• VFO controlled
• solid state
• direct conversion
• CW only
• requires an external 12V power supply

I'm looking forward to the unit arriving, doing any needed restoration, and getting it on the air. Because it is solid state, it will make a good candidate for trying out some portable operation using battery power. I hope to give that a try at some point this summer.