Computer Collector and Historians Resource Hub

Computer History Resource Sites 

                                                                                     

one the Apple-1 computers
as a part of my collection.
See Video about my 4 Apple-1 computers.

I have listed "Computer Collector and Historical Information"  collected and used during the past 12 years used in producing Videos and Writing Blog post. Blog post & videos cover several topics of my interest including, historical computers, amateur radio, land for sale by owner, tiny homes and Chantilly Farm. I have been involved with digital computers for the past 63 years. It all started with my attending a training class at Remington Rand Computer Corporation in St. Paul Minnesota in 1957.  Teaching "Electronic Instrumentation and Automation" for 33 years at Virginia Tech and collecting microcomputers for more than 45 years . You will find more than 200 web sites in the links below.  I hope you find this information useful - have fun.

Pioneers - Microcomputer & PC Revolution          Computer History - Web sites & Blog's

Computer Books for Collectors                             Dave's 200 Computer Blog Postings 

125 Videos about my Computer Collection.         39 Videos about my 4 Apple-1's Collection 

My entire computer collection is now located at "The Computer Museum of America" in Roswell, Georgia. 

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For Radio Amateur operators 

127 Videos my Amateur Radio Activity         59 Videos My Dominica Amateur Radio

82 Videos "Foundation for International Radio Service" FAIRS

9 Videos - Basic electronic tutorials                       My 66 years of Amateur Radio 

Bug Logo for my
 Bugbooks and Museum

David Larsen
 Blog Author

"by David Larsen"  Chantilly Farm owner, Computer Historian, and amateur radio operator -KK4WW   & N4USA .  I work out of one of the Tiny Homes at Chantilly Farm. A great place to work if you like the to be out in nature. I am 81 and ready to sell Chantilly Farm - I have a few more  projects I would like to do - if you have an interest to know more give me a call. 540 392 2392

First day packing for move to Computer Museum of America

Bugbooks

The first day of packing for the move of  the microcomputer historical collection from our Bugbook Computer Museum to the Computer Museum of America (CMA)  did not include any computers.  Lonnie Mimms curator of the CMA will be developing a large electronic technology and education center in 2017 and it will include all areas of electronics.  Lonnie wanted all our vintage electronics so we are sending much more then the computer collection. Mostly just old radio items today and none of this is on the regular electronic database for the museum.  I guess I am a hoarder of old electronic items and for sure being a ham radio operator 61 years the vintage radio stuff just kept accumulating.

Update 2/16/16 The snow and ice delayed the packing - we did get in two days and will start again on Wednesday 2/17/16 and hope to have it all done by Tuseday2/22/16- I will keep you posted.

Short slide show of the days events "CLICK" 

This is just a few of the old radio items - I had them on display many years in the warehouse for my own interest .  There are a lot more ham radio items in the warehouse and at the museum. I have not really counted the radio and old electronic items but must be several hundred. A few nice old Soviet military radios in the collection.

All the items are wrapped in bubble wrap before going into the shipping box.

Most boxes have multiple items.

Toward the end of the first day the packing crew made it close to the computers in the warehouse but still lots of none computer items to pack.

There are many thousands of computer memorabilia items to pack so it will be 3 or 4 more days of packing.

The crew wanted to use paper to wrap some items however  I insisted that every piece had to be wrapped in bubble wrap.


They used up the whole supply of bubble wrap available to them and had to order a large supply.  This will take a couple of days so no packing Wednesday or Thursday. They should be back Friday with a truck load of bubble wrap.

This photograph and the ones below will be of interest mostly to ham radio operators. Just a few of the old radios Heathkit, Swan, Ten-Tec.

The old Swan radios were very popular in the 60's and 70's.

This is interesting SWR/Watt meter and dummy load. I seem to love these old items.

These Hallicrafters  are late 40's and 50's. I have radios going back to pre 1920.

1950 or so Harvey Wells hf bandmaster AM transmitter.

Great end of the day. It was cold as I do not have heat in the warehouse. I did put in 5 electric heaters and it helped a little. The outside temperature today was about 30 degrees - Cooold. The hot coffee the middle of the afternoon was most welcome by the crew.

David G Larsen

This was a good start and I expect 3 or 4 more days of packing with a 5 man crew. I only wish it was warmer in the warehouse. Maybe the cold will help the crew work faster. I did notice today the coats all came off even thought it was about 35 degrees inside. 

 "by David Larsen" KK4WW Computer Collector / Historian 

   

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Bugbook Computer Museum is moving to the Computer Museum of America

Bugbooks

Mimms Enterprises Office Bld.

January 15,2016 my wife Gaynell and I loaded up our car with a few select computers from our Bugbook Computer Museum and headed for Roswell, Georgia.  We made this trip to meet with Lonnie Mimms owner & curator of the  Computer Museum of America. Our visit was to complete the final planning to move the entire Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum collection to the Computer Museum of America.

I have been looking for a good home for the microcomputer memorabilia collection collected during the past 45 years. I did not see a way for the collection to carry on in a useful way here in Floyd, Virginia after I stop kicking dirt above ground. Moving the collection to the Computer Museum of America is just a great opportunity to have the collection live into the future.

I am very excited for the new home not only the computer collection - any and all historical electronic equipment I have will be part of the move.  Some of the additional items moving to the Computer Museum of America are my vintage ham radio collection, vintage radio tube collection, calculator collection, Edison light bulbs and assorted vintage test equipment and old signage used by electronic and computer stores. The moving trucks will be picking up the computer collection in Floyd, Virginia next week.

Computer Museum of America warehouse

Here we are at Lonnie Mimms Computer Museum of America warehouse unloading the computers brought with us from the Bugbook Computer Museum in Floyd, Virginia.

"Festival News" Vintage Computer Festival SE April 2016 at the Computer Museum of America April 2&3



                                       These are the computers delivered today.

John Birch Apple-1 computer

Here is my John Burch original Apple-1 computer purchased 21 years ago. This is a beautiful example of the first Apple computers and is listed as #13 on the Willegal Apple-1 Registry. The second original  - a "Dustin" Apple-1 computer will be delivered at a later date.

The John Burch Apple-1 computer was delivered direct to Lonnie's office.

SCELBI H8 Microcomputer

SCELBI H8 microcomputer first available in March of 1974. Only about 200 kits and computers were produced and 10 or so are still in existence. Original SCELBI computers are rare this one has a video card in is in an interesting wood case/rack with a keyboard.

Here is detail video about this SCELBI computer "CLICK'

Super Jolt Microcomputer

Super Jolt microcomputer designed by Ray Holt. Only about 5,000 of these computers were made and sold in 1975.  The Jolt computers are rare example of a very functional microcomputer prior to the Apple-1. Ray will be giving a talk at the VCSE in April. 

Here is my blog with more detail about this Jolt Computer 
"CLICK"

Intel Intellec 4 4004 development computer

Intellec 4 - Intel development microcomputer system for the Intel 4004 microprocessor chip. The 4004 was the first commercial microprocessor chip and was first available November 1970. An Intel Intellec 8 (8008 microprocessor) development system also delivered.

Here is detail video about this Intel computer "CLICK"

Inter 8008 microcomputer development system

This is a pre Intel Intellec 8 for use as a development and engineering microcomputer using the Intel 8008 microprocessor this one dated 1972 from  Intel. This one was purchase for me by my friend Robert Stone 36 years ago in 1980 at one of the surplus electronic parts houses in Silicon Valley.

Here is my video about this Intel Computer "CLICK"

MITS Altair 680 microcomputer

The Altair 680 was a product of Ed Roberts at MITS after he designed the famous first complete ( all parts including case to build 8080)microcomputer in January 1975 - the MITS Altair 8800. The Altair 680 was not very popular. The 680 microcomputer used the Motorola 6800 series of microprocessor chips.

Here is my video about this Altair 680 Computer "CLICK"

Intersil IM6100

The Intercept Jr tutorial system is an interesting microcomputer trainer that can execute the PDP-8 minicomputer code.  The design uses the  Intersil IM6100 CMOS 12 bit microprocessor. The idea of using the old PDP-8 code turned out to be a poor idea in 1976 and the computer and the IM6100 were never very popular. It is a good example of using a minicomputer chip/code to sell a microcomputer. It turned out to be a bad idea as mini computers were in a death spiral and never had a recovery.
More information about the Intercept in my blog "CLICK"

MARK-8 Computer 

The MARK-8 microcomputer designed in 1974 and published as a construction article by Jon Titus in July 1974. The computer used the 8008 and came with no software - this was a real do-it-yourself project. About 200 board kits were sold without any parts - you had to obtain the parts on your own. This was a difficult project and not very many MARK-8 computer were actually completed and operational.
Here is my video about this Titus MARK-8 Computer "CLICK"

MARK-8 Computer 

A MARK-8 computer made as an exact copy of the first MARK-8 made by Jon Titus as it resides in the Smithsonian. Jon gets a lot of credit for designing one of the first microcomputers and the first construction article - How to build your own computer published in Radio Electronic July 1974.
This computer was made by Roy Justus. Roy was a student of mine at VT in the early 70's. He did a beautiful job building the an making the case and this fully functional computer. Two additional MARK-8 computers were part of this delivery.
Here is my video about this MARK-8 Computer "CLICK"

Mini Micro computer 8080

The Mark-80 MD-1 - another Jon Titus computer made for the educational and engineering market. The computer was sold  for our group by E & L Instruments in Derby , CT. This was Jon's first computer at Tycon in Blacksburg, Virginia. It was complicated with 3 cards and a mother board. The computer used the 8080 microprocessor.

MMD-1 Training computer

This is one of 10 prototype Mini-Micro  MMD-1 (8080) microcomputers made after the MD-1 in the above photo. This computer in the final design show below was very popular as a training and engineering aid for about 13 years from 1977 to 1990. This is another computer designed by Jon Titus while at Tycon (Blacksburg Group) and sold for  us by E & L Instruments.

Here is my blog detail about this MMD-1 and the one below "CLICK"

MMD-1 Training computer

The commercial version of the MMD-1 above. There were a number of thousands sold. It was a good producer of royalties for the Blacksburg Group.

Bugbook Computer MuseumStoryboard

We brought one of the storyboards from the bugbook Computer Museum.  We have more storyboards however the car was full.

LR  Lonnie Mimms - David Larsen

It was a delight to make this very small first delivery of computers to the Computer Museum of America.

Lonnie Mimms on the left Curator of the Computer Museum of Americal.

David Larsen on the right Curator of the Bugbook Computer Musuem.

LR  - David Larsen -  Lonnie Mimms

David Larsen and Lonnie Mimms sign agreement to move the Bugbook Museum collection to Roswell , Georgia

David Larsen

The visit to the Computer Museum of America and meeting with Lonnie and his wife Karin were a real delight.  The entire staff at the Bugbook Computer Museum is excited to have our collection move to the world class "Computer Museum of America".  I will still be involved by continuing to write this blog.

Thank you Lonnie Mimms and your staff for this wonderful opportunity.

.^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   
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Wayne Green founder of; Byte magazine; 73 magazine, Kilobyte, Kilobaud,80 Micro & more

info click

Wayne Green 

Wayne Green was a prolific person when it came to creating magazines, companies & 100,s of ideas for products. Wayne was also an amateur radio operator W2NSD and many of his creations were related to amateur radio as well as microcomputers.

I was well acquainted with Wayne and we had many meetings and discussions over the years.  He wanted to travel with our group going to the Soviet Union and his comment was "I can fix a lot of their problems'. This comment should give you the idea he had a very big ego and was sometimes eccentric & strange in the way he acted.   The short of this story is he did not go and cancelled at the last minute due to some business deal he was working on. I am sure his staying home was a real blessing for me as if he would have made the trip it would have been an international disaster.

Wayne did have a brilliance about him and created many successful ventures. He proclaimed to be the best in about  everything  including finance, marketing, health, food, travel, microcomputers, politics, cold fusion and the moon landing, the list does not end. He also served as a founder and first secretary of American Mensa.

73 Magazine September 2003

I liked Wayne and helped write some articles for his publications over the years. Here is an issue of his ham radio magazine "73 Amateur Radio Today" September 2002 -  I furnished the cover photo and did a story about our "Foundation for Amateur International Radio Service" (FAIRS) work in Dominica. Read the FAIRS story.

That is me at the top of the ladder putting up our ham radio antenna's in Roseau, Dominica.

As we have said Wayne was an interesting fellow and Randy Kindig published "Floppy Days 48 - Kevin Savetz Interviews Wayne Green". This interview was January 29, 2013 and Wayne died the following September. This had to be nearly the last recorded interview given by Wayne Green.

I have posted the whole blog below with permission from Randy Kindig. I think you will find this interesting history about Mr. Green. You can even check out the FBI file on Wayne.

___________________________________________________________

Welcome to a special interview-only episode of the Floppy Days Podcast.  For this show, we have an interview conducted by Kevin Savetz, interviewer-extraordinaire from the Antic Podcast.  Kevin conducted this interview 2 years ago.  Since the interviewee and topic are not Atari-related, but are very much vintage computer related, Kevin and I thought perhaps Floppy Days would be a good medium for publishing this interview.

Wayne Green, Computer Magazine Publisher

Wayne Green was founder of 73 magazine; Byte magazine; Kilobyte, which became Kilobaud, then Kilobaud Microcomputing; 80 Micro magazine for the TRS-80; Hot Coco for the TRS-80 Color Computer; Run for the Commodore 64, inCider magazine for the Apple II; and several other computer magazines.

This interview took place over Skype on January 29, 2013, when I was doing research for a book about the very first personal computer magazines — Byte, Kilobyte, and Creative Computing. Although I've decided not to write the book, I am publishing the interviews that I did for them.
Wayne Green died on September 13, 2013, eight months after we did this interview.
Teaser quotes:

"Sharing is the big deal for me. When I find something fun, interesting, I have to share it."
"Steve Jobs ... I heard about the Apple computer so my wife and I stopped by to visit him. ... He took me out to the garage and showed it to me. He says, 'What do you think?' I said 'I think you've got a winner. There's a first computer conference is going to be in Atlantic City in two weeks. Be there.' He says 'Oh, I can't afford to fly.' I said, 'Take a bus. Be there.'"

"Amelia Earhart kept her plane at my dad's airport. ... I used to play in that when I was a kid. ... I'm one of the few people who knows exactly what happened to her."


Links:
Obituary:  http://www.arrl.org/news/ham-radio-publications-pioneer-visionary-iconoclast-wayne-green-w2nsd-sk

An article remembering Wayne: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2474900/windows-pcs/goodbye-wayne-green--and-thanks-for-the-memories.html

Wayne Green FBI file:  https://archive.org/details/Wanye_Green_FBI_FOIA_Request_Response

Kilobaud Microcomputing issues: https://archive.org/details/kilobaudmagazine 

See  Randall's original podcast here published October 24,2015.
________________________________________________________

David Larsen

Wayne Green was an interesting person and prolific writer. I always enjoyed reading his editorial "Never Say Die" in 73 Magazine .

           .^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}

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Alexander Bell demonstrates wireless transmission of voice - 2 minutes of history

info click

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Bell demonstrates wireless transmission of voice 4 years after inventing the telephone. Podcast story teller is Curtis Anderson N4ON curator of the Telephone Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Podcast made during his visit to the Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum in Floyd Virginia.





Alexander Bell demonstrates wireless transmission of voice 4 years after inventing the telephone.

Click on photo to enlarge 

Curtis Anderson at N4USA
amateur radio station

Curtis Anderson N4ON at the amateur radio station N4USA in our "Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum" in Floyd, Virginia. 

Here is an audio description of our N4USA radio station. 

David Larsen

Thank you for the visit Curtis - it was fun to talk about vintage computers, ham radio and old times during our careers of 30 or more years ago.

           .^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian} 

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Apple-1 computer proof documents sell $25,000 at Christie's Auction

Ron Wayne sells his Apple-1 proof documents for $25,000.
Bob Luther's Apple-1 computer sells for $365,000.

info click

Ron Wayne, Apple co-founder

Ron Wayne owned 10% of  the Apple Computer Company (April 1,1976) and was co -founder with Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak.  Ron contributed his business & engineering skills however when the Apple needed to borrow money to build the first 50 Apple-1 computers he did not feel comfortable with his part of the debt responsibility.  Ron Sold his interest in the Apple partnership for about $800 only 12 days after the formation of the partnership.  Ron  was a creative designer and continued his design work after selling his interest including the original Apple logo and schematic  drawings for Apple.

The story of Ron's involvement in  Apple Computer is not well known however their have been some interesting turns of fortune for him.  The 10 % ownership Ron had for 11 days would now be worth about $30 Billion - that is with a B.

Ron was the business guy for Apple and wrote the original partnership agreement between Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and himself.  Copiers were not common then and 3 original copies with all 3 signatures were made.  Ron kept his copy of the contract  in a personal file for years and sold it  in the 90's to a signature collector for $500. That same contract sold December 13th, 2011 for $1.6 million to Eduardo Cisneros at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.

                                                                                                      Click image to enlarge

Montage of Ron's Documents - Credit Christie's

Ron had a personal file of proofs he helped create at Apple inc. and decided now was the time to make a sale with  interest in Apple is at an all time high.







Mr. Wayne owned the documents that sold today in his collection and did very well at Christie's auction for $25,000. Today was a good day for Ron Wayne.
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Learn more about Ron Wayne

Ron's Facebook Page     His Web Site    Twitter  Wikipedia  Story in Computer World

Ron 's early days in the formation of the Apple Computer Company. Video

Ron's book "Adventures of an Apple Founder" at Amazon

I am reading the book now and find it an interesting read - Dave

David Larsen

This was a great auction for Ron Wayne finally getting a good price for his Apple memorabilia 

.^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   
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