VCF East

[glenn.f...@gmail.com]

I just got home from VCF East in Wall NJ. Here’s a quick report.

 

We were able to have all three exhibits (Glenn Roberts & Mike Cassidy, Darrell Pelan & Joe Travis, and Alex Bodnar) co-located in one room (new location vs. past events). We had one other person there (Matt) whose presentation was on various flavors of BASIC. Mike Lowewen was there too (in the main demo room) with his awesome HP minicomputer exhibits and his (very cool) Burroughs/Electrodata B205 control console “blinkenlights.” (https://q7.neurotica.com/Prop_Console/)

 

I think overall the new room was a good solution. We were near the auditorium where the talks were held, and near the food! So we had a lot of traffic (especially Saturday).  Darrell and I did posters to put on the wall hear the entrance – that also helped draw people in. Visitors appreciated the range of equipment and ideas all the way from Joe’s EC-1 analog computer, through ET-3400, H11 (Alex and I both had working systems!), a number of H8s and our NC Super89 systems (plus all of Darrell’s great 3-D printing!).  Lots of traffic and lots of positive comments.  Common comments: “I don’t know Heathkit – I’m too young,” “I drooled over the catalog but could never afford it,” “My {father, cousin, uncle …} had one of those” etc. Mike was the newest member of our group and he was working hard at soaking in all the knowledge and expertise.

 

Here are some of my pictures (including a few from my ferry ride back to DE). I’m sure there will be more. Enjoy!

 

• Glenn

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tmCvrAe4kKkGEbtN8

[Joseph Travis]

Thanks Glenn!  I guess we got outta there at a good time...  They had to evacuate the buildings due to a bomb threat!  

BR,

Joe 

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[Fred G]

Loved the picture. I had no idea it was as large a show as it was.  Vintage computers are alive and well!

Thanks,

Fred

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Subject: Re: [sebhc] VCF East

 

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[Mark Garlanger]

Did you pick up an Z-67?

 

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[Glenn Roberts]

The z67 is owned by Alex. He brought it so we could try to get it working. We did a rudimentary test (no smoke at least) but there wasn’t enough idle time to do a more in-depth investigation. It still had value though: when demonstrating the Z67-IDE+ I could point to the real thing and say that we had reduced it to a single 3.5” board!

Sent from my iPad

On Apr 19, 2026, at 11:08 PM, Mark Garlanger <garl...@gmail.com> wrote:



Did you pick up an Z-67?

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[norberto.collado koyado.com]

Love the Z-67, the poster "the old vs the new”, and all the pictures.

Great job in carrying all that heavy HW and performing great presentations.

Thanks,

Norby

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Glenn Roberts <glenn.f...@gmail.com>
Date: Monday, April 20, 2026 at 2:58 AM
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Cc: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] VCF East

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[Alexander 'Z' Pierson]

Y'all did a great job this year.  I spent most of my time over with the Ohio Scientific exhibits at the complete opposite end of campus, but I did venture through room G a few times to see the Heathkit stuff.

Thank you for sharing the photos you took from the event, I'll add them to the big directory of galleries: https://www.commodorez.com/vcfarcgal.html#26

-Z

[Lee Hart]

Wow. What a great display, you guys! Wish I could have been there. But I had surgery scheduled for April 20. Wouldn't you know, on April 16 they rescheduled it into May. If they did it a day sooner, I might have been able to go!

I loved seeing the EC-1 analog computer hooked up and doing something. In college, we programmed it to balance an inverted pendulum. We had a piece of HO train track with an engine and flat car, a piece of wood hinged to the flat car. and photocells to indicate the car and wood's position.

Mark Garlanger: "Did you pick up an H67?"

Answer: "No, I didn't want to get a hernia!"

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[Joseph Travis]

We missed you Lee!  I spoke with Josh a few times while I was there.  I hope you'll be able to make it to VCFMW in September.

BR,

Joe 

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[Lee Hart]

Yeah, I was really hoping to go to VCF-East again this year. No such luck. :-( My heart surgery was rescheduled for May 7. I hope they can reboot my system!

To console myself, I watched some Heathkit videos on youtube. Here's one I hadn't seen before. "The Mistake That Built Heathkit, and the America That Buried It" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQOG1hp54g. AI narration and irrelevant photos, but basically correct. Its thesis is that cheap WW2 surplus created Heath's electronic kit business, and a combination of cheap imported electronics, the death of thru-hole assembly, and Zenith management killed it. I'm not so sure about that last part.

Lee

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[ocl...@earthlink.net]

Yep, I avoided watching this video because it looked like crappy AI and I did not need any more of that.

 

But now I HAVE watched it, and concur with Lee’s assessment. Nothing like a random photo of Bob Moog or a picture of a steel mill to spice up a Heathkit video......

 

Paul Schmidt

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Lee Hart
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2026 4:21 PM
To: se...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [sebhc] VCF East

 

Yeah, I was really hoping to go to VCF-East again this year. No such luck. :-( My heart surgery was rescheduled for May 7. I hope they can reboot my system!

 

To console myself, I watched some Heathkit videos on youtube. Here's one I hadn't seen before. "The Mistake That Built Heathkit, and the America That Buried It" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQOG1hp54g. AI narration and irrelevant photos, but basically correct. Its thesis is that cheap WW2 surplus created Heath's electronic kit business, and a combination of cheap imported electronics, the death of thru-hole assembly, and Zenith management killed it. I'm not so sure about that last part.

 

Lee

 

 

 

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On Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 9:51 PM Joseph Travis <jtravi...@gmail.com> wrote:

We missed you Lee!  I spoke with Josh a few times while I was there.  I hope you'll be able to make it to VCFMW in September.

 

BR,

Joe 

 

On Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 6:50 PM Lee Hart <electr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wow. What a great display, you guys! Wish I could have been there. But I had surgery scheduled for April 20. Wouldn't you know, on April 16 they rescheduled it into May. If they did it a day sooner, I might have been able to go!

 

I loved seeing the EC-1 analog computer hooked up and doing something. In college, we programmed it to balance an inverted pendulum. We had a piece of HO train track with an engine and flat car, a piece of wood hinged to the flat car. and photocells to indicate the car and wood's position.

 

Mark Garlanger: "Did you pick up an H67?"

Answer: "No, I didn't want to get a hernia!"

 

 

 

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[norberto.collado koyado.com]

Lee, what kind of heart surgery are you getting?

We all wishing you the best. 👍

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[Lee Hart]

Thanks guys. Triple bypass. :-( They claim 80-90% blockages. But I'm not having symptoms, so they've rescheduled it three times to let someone ahead that's more serious.

Anyway, I'd like to hear more about the VCF-East show! Was it mainly static displays, or programs that people could see running, or activities they could do and remember? I like to encourage the latter. Modern computers are so overwhelming that it's hard to get people to appreciate the early ones.

One year, our Cosmac 1802 group brought all the parts, and had visitors BUILD a wire-wrapped 1802 Elf right at our table. At the end of the day, we raffled it off. It was very successful at getting people to remember. Any chance that we could find an unbuilt Heathkit and have visitors build it at the next show?

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[Joseph Travis]

That's an interesting idea however, any unassembled / unfinished Heathkit computer(s) would be hard to come by and the amount of time needed to assemble one would probably take longer than the show runs.  However, assembling one of your Altoids Z80 kits might be a better option.  I'm not sure they would allow a raffle such as that at VCF East, the odds would be better at VCFMW.

Most of the displays at VCF East were interactive and the show was bigger (more exhibitors) than years past.

BR,

Joe

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[Mike Loewen]

On Mon, 27 Apr 2026, Lee Hart wrote:

> Anyway, I'd like to hear more about the VCF-East show! Was it mainly static
> displays, or programs that people could see running, or activities they
> could do and remember? I like to encourage the latter. Modern computers are
> so overwhelming that it's hard to get people to appreciate the early ones.

The idea at VCF East is to show as many running systems as possible. Most
tables had software running, and people are encouraged to sit down and use
them. I had a 1983-vintage HP 2113E minicomputer, and demonstrated the process
of loading BASIC from paper tape and subsequently loading BASIC programs from
tape. I had two women competing at Lunar Lander on Saturday, and had to wait
until they were done to shut down. :-)

The other half of my exhibit was a HP 87XM desktop micro from 1983, running
a demo that showed off its features: graphics, text modes, etc. A few people
wrote some BASIC code on it as well.


Mike Loewen mlo...@cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

[Lee Hart]

Joe, I sent about 45 of my simpler kits to Jon Chapman, who had them in the Infoage build-it yourself room. He also gave some to the build-a-blinkie guys, who had run out of their own kits. From what I hear, most of them got built. So people were willing to spend a little time building.

When we built the wire-wrapped Elf, each person who added a wire or two got a raffle ticket. At then end, we drew the winner out of a hat. This way, no one had to spend a lot of time, and everyone had a chance to win.

We could ask the VCF group if a raffle is permitted. But sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. :-)

I think we could do the same with one of the simpler Heathkits that could be built in 8-10 man-hours. Each person solders a part or two, so no one has to spend a lot of time on it.

You're right that unbuilt kits are scarce and expensive. A quick look on ebay (#157855678194) shows an unbuilt Heath GC-1094 clock kit for $162.50. A clock might be a good "generic" kit that anyone could use.

But Heath was very good at using generic parts. I wonder if we could put together a clone of some kit? A real manual can be copied, a new PCB made, maybe a case salvaged from a real Heathkit?

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[Randy E (OoMOR)]

Quick Robin! To the 3D Printer!

[Bob Bell]

I think you all have a great idea.  Between the ages of 12 and perhaps 50 or 55, I had much fun building perhaps 50 Heathkits, including the color TV.  I think creating a replica of one of their kits would be so cool and retro.

My first one was the IM-18 VTVM.  I used it for years until I got a Fluke.  It's now on my shelf waiting for me to find the time to check it over and restore it back to full operation.  I still have the manual.  I thought about this as a simpler kit, but then remembered the custom meter and wafer switches.  But, real tubes that would not be hard to find - a 12AU7 and a 6AL5.

So then, maybe the decade resistance box, IN-3117.  Much simpler switches, just single gang 10 position.  I would hazard a guess they will not be too hard to find.  And the 1% (or better) precision resistors are plentiful. 

Bob Bell

[Joseph Travis]

Something simple and useful could be a logic probe, capable of handling TTL, CMOS and 3v3.

Joe 

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[Lee Hart]

A logic probe would be a great build-in-an-hour kit. Simple, useful, and blinkie-lights. :-) But we'd probably need to have a pile of them to build.

Heathkit's logic probe was the IT-7410. I never had one, but it was likely a pretty simple device. I have a CSC logic probe that I built as a kit. It only has half a dozen parts on the PCB.

It would be easier (on us) if it was a kit that a) took 8-12 hours to build, so b) we only had to make up one kit, and c) anyone could use the final product.

Another possibility is to make a "new" Heathkit, in the style of the old Heathkits. Change the name slightly to keep the lawyers at bay (Heatkit? Just add solder?). What might a "new" Heatkit be like?

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[Randy E (OoMOR)]

While I like the idea of a logic probe (Maybe a TRON themed case?), this would be for the Vintage Computer Fair. Why not make a simple-ish to build recreation of an actual vintage computer assuming parts availability. Maybe one of the several interesting recreations shared through PCBWAY and other similar sites? We could also go with some of the already available kits such as the Altair-Duino or ESP32 based IMSAI 8080 recreation from the High Nibble. I also remember seeing a nice small kit that when completed would fit into an Altoids can, but I can't for the life of me remember who was offering them! Lee, would you know how to contact him?

Randy

[Lee Hart]

Brainstorming mode...

I've made "badge" kits for several VCF events. These are little blinkie-light things that people can wear on their shirt or hat to show their "hacker" talents. Since these are vintage computer shows, I use strictly thru-hole assembly and vintage parts (6502, Z80, 1802 etc.) In fact, my Z80 Membership Card was inspired by the H8, with its keypad and 7-seg display.

So... what about making an H8 "badge"? A PCB styled to look like an H8 front panel, with 12 tactile switches and nine 7-seg displays. 80C85 CPU, EPROM, RAM, and perhaps an 82C55 to provide three 8-bit ports to run things. The 80C85's SID and SOD lines can provide a serial port. That's only 4-5 chips. All CMOS so it can run on a few AAA cells.

Make the ROM program emulate the H8 front panel and PAM8. A 32k EPROM should also have room for Benton Harbor BASIC or something similar.

Make the manual emulate a Heath manual. Provide a short version for the show, with a link to a more complete online version.

I can see making up kits for the show. Sell them at cost, which is what I've done for other shows. Have a soldering station so people can assemble them right at one of our tables.

Imagine people walking around with little H8s on their chest. The mind boggles. 😀

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[Randy E (OoMOR)]

Well, I don't H8 it. In fact, that sounds like a wonderful idea!

Sorry for the pun.

Randy

[Joseph Travis]

So I started thinking about it after our phone conversation. You can hide the crystal beneath the 8085, memory map the LED display to ROM space to save on I/O decoding. If you use nine 7 segment displays, have an option to switch between octal and hexadecimal (to keep others happy).  You might consider 8K pages of ROM space with the ability to select between ASM, BASIC and maybe FORTH.  'Just some initial thoughts...

Joe 

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[norberto.collado koyado.com]

I have been thinking for a while to do a Mini-H8 with the tactile switches, Z80, CF card, and one H89 slot for IO, etc.

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[Lee Hart]

Since we're wandering off-topic, I started a new "H8 Badge for VCFMW" (thread though I don't see it yet. Maybe I did something wrong?).

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[Alexander 'Z' Pierson]

Here are my photos from VCF East this year: https://www.commodorez.com/VCFEXXI/

-Z

[Joseph Travis]

Thanks for the photos! I didn't get around to see everything this year and it's nice to see what others brought.

Joe 

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