[SFDXA] HAL HISTORY

[Bill]

This is from the SMECC site and thought it interesting for many. Full 
Credit remains with them.

Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation.
http://smecc.org/

Full Article:
http://smecc.org/rtty_ratt_radio_teletype.htm

*HAL HISTORY
HAL Devices - HAL Communications Corp.*

*By Bill Henry, President HAL Communications  - Retired*

HAL history goes back to 1966/67. We started as "HAL Devices", a 
partnership, but formalized in 1972 as "HAL Communications Corp.", an 
Illinois Corporation. From the start we were hams and graduate students 
at the University of Illinois In Urbana. Until last year, HAL was owned 
by one or more of the original founders.

The name "HAL" was chosen by the first HAL Devices partner, George 
Perrine. George said he picked the name because it is "one letter ahead 
of IBM". Turned out to be a good choice and easy to remember. It also 
does not seem to have any "nasty translations" into any other language. 
There was not and never has been any connection to "Hal", Arthur 
Clarke's intelligent computer in the screen play "2001" - later 
published as a book. We were very surprised when the movie hit the Coed 
Theatre on campus and discovered that the movie's computer had our name. 
We never had any problems with that similarity - "Hal" for the movie and 
"HAL" (all caps) for our small company. But, from time-to-time, we did 
have issues with others trying to use "HAL". That resulted in us paying 
lawyers. The offenders folded or eventually went out of business. I've 
also had issue with others reprinting several of my technical articles 
under their own names. I am sensitive to that and over the years paid a 
lot of money to attorneys to protect HAL's documents.

*HAL Devices:*

HAL Devices started in 1966 as a loose partnership of 3, 4, or 5 
graduate students at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. We 
bought parts from various sources and then resold them at hamfests. The 
big items were the Fairchild 900 RTL chips - 8 pin round plastic 
packages. We bought ours in 100 lots from Semiconductor Specialists in 
Chicago and then resold them at hamfests for a price midway between list 
and the 100-lot price. Our first "product" was a double-balanced 
modulator circuit board that used HP hot carrier diodes. That was based 
on an article in Ham Radio Magazine. We also sold CW keyers - the 
111/211/311 Keyer, then the 1550, and finally the 2550. The numbers used 
to mean something but I have no recall now. My activity started with the 
RT-1 TU that I designed for use on USAF MARS. It worked but was not 
manufacturable or easily serviced - live and learn. The ST-6 was of 
course our first big deal product and it continued for almost 10 years. 
The RVD-series of video display generators put us on the map. Terminal 
products continued to dominate sales well into the 1980's - until the 
IBM-PC and its clones came along. HAL Devices evolved as our products 
and customer base increased. Our "facilities" included George Perrine's 
unheated garage, my basement, Paul Tucker's kitchen, and finally 2000 
sq. ft. on Locust Street in Champaign. Jim McNabb, WA9YLB, was our first 
full-time employee, complete with a paycheck, payroll deductions, and 
all that stuff. The assemblers still did piece-work but now had a place 
to work other than their kitchens or basements. We soon hired several 
high-school students to help with bagging parts, packing orders, and 
testing of equipment.

*HAL Communications Corp.:*

On January 1st, 1972, George Perrine, Paul Tucker, and I met at in 
Champaign to discuss the future. The meeting started at 8AM and lasted 
until NOON the following day, 1/2/1972. With pizza, donuts, Big Mac's 
and many pots of coffee, we hammered out the organization that became 
HAL Communications Corp. As a result of the meeting, HAL Devices was 
sold to HAL Communications Corp. with each of us receiving equal shares 
in the new company. HAL Communications quickly out-grew the 2000 sq. ft. 
facility in Champaign and in 1973, we purchased an old grocery store 
building in Urbana. That building served us well until we built the 
present facility on Kenyon Road in 1980. In July, 1976, George Perrine 
moved on and Paul and I purchased his interests. In 1983, Paul also 
moved on and I became the sole stockholder and owner. On Dec. 7, 2012, I 
sold my stock and interest in the company to Barrett Communications in 
Perth Australia. Joe Wittmer (my son-in-law) continues as Managing 
Director for Barrett.

That's the short form of the "history". The list of products is long - 
several hundred, I think. Some were successful, many were not. We had 
some really great ideas - like the video display generator, ASR 
terminal, MSO (mailbox), fancy modems, and of course CLOVER. Other ideas 
were not so great! You win some and you lose some. I had a flirtation 
with doing MIL-SPEC products and for 5 or 6 years it was very successful 
and profitable. But I almost lost my shirt when a big contract was 
suddenly dropped. Learned my lesson - never bid on another government 
contract after that (1995). Over the years, I counted over 300 different 
names in my employee files. Two people who started with us in 1972 are 
still there - Phyllis Costa, Assembler, and Mark Prather, Manufacturing 
Manager. As I mentioned above, Joe Wittmer continues as General Manager. 
None of us at HAL ever had much money. The company was always 
"leveraged" - heavily leveraged in some years. Growth depended on 
selling something. I was approached by "investors" and venture 
capitalists but never accepted their money - or control. I witnessed 
several friends go through that with generally bad results. We did make 
use of bank loans but that became increasingly difficult after 1993. The 
best plan for a small business is to not spend any more than you have! 
(Easy to say now.)

I thoroughly enjoyed the job. There are not many occupations where you 
get to pay yourself to do exactly what you always wanted to do. I had 
never planned to retire - "I'll die at my desk" was my response when 
asked. BUT - Barrett came up with "an offer I couldn't refuse" and here 
I am. In hindsight, I see that I should have planned for this. I really 
miss the place. "Retirement" is OK but gets boring at times. I still 
wake up in the wee hours worrying about business things - like I had 
done most mornings for the last 45 years. "Getting old is not for the 
faint of heart"!

73,

Bill Henry,

K9GWT