[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
>