This page was last updated on 04/05/2003
With the introduction of the H-8 and H-11 computers, Heathkit also started a Users' group. This "company within a company" published REMark magazine (initially a quarterly when it started in 1978, it went monthly with the October, 1980 issue). The Users' group also maintained a software library.
With articles written by Heath employees as well as contributed by users, REMark was often the best source for information about "undocumented" features and detailed descriptions of new products as they were announced. The magazine also sported a letters column and (sporadically) a technical FAQ feature. My subscription started with issue #3; I was a subscriber right up to the time they folded, which was with the Volume 8, No. 9 issue in September, 1987. (I bought issues 1 and 2 when they offered back issues, so I have the complete set.)
I thought it might be interesting to list the contents of these magazines. Bear with me, it's going to take quite awhile to get all 90-odd issues catalogged. (Along the way, I'll correct one attribution which credited an article to the wrong author. That's my reward for doing the typing -- the article was by yours truely but a printing error attributed it to someone else.)Issue 1 (1978)
3 "Editorial" by Robert Furtaw
4 "HUG: What's in it for You" by Lou Frenzel
5 "Introducing HUG: The Heath User's Group
6 "The DEC Connection"
7 "Need to Learn Programming?"
8 "Most Frequently Asked Questions About the Heathkit H8 Computer"
11 "New Microprocessor Learning System"
12 "Involvement: The Key to Satisfaction in Hobby and Personal Computing"
14 "Configured vs. Distribution Tapes"
14 "Heath Floppy Disk System"
16 "Installing Ex. B. H. BASIC Patches"
17 "Byte Size" (short subjects)
19 "The Mail Box" (letters)
20 Software Dept:
A Numismatic Inventory -- Leon Cray
Mini-NIM -- Hughes B. Hoyle, III
Sorting Strings -- Dr. Wm. N. Campbell
27 "An Advance Notice: New Applications Software" (product announcements)
Issue 2 (1978)
3 "New Product Introduction" by Lou Frenzel
4 "An ASCII/Baudot Device for the H8 System" by Howard L. Nurse
11 "H11 ASCII Printout Test"
13 "The Computer Hobbyist: What's he Like?" by Murray Nichols
16 "Using the H8 Console Driver"
18 "H8 Lower to Upper Case Modification"
20 "More about the H17 Minifloppy Disk System"
23 "The Mail Box"
26 "Byte Size"
28 "H8 Disassembler Program" by Michael Jones
30 "Buffalo Area H8 Ownsers Meet"
31 "Factory Assembled Versions of all Heathkit Computer Products to be Available Soon"
31 "New Heathkit Electronics Center Opens in Texas"
Issue 3 (1978)
3 "In This Issue"
3 "Variable Length Character String Cassette I/O in Extended B.H> Basic" by Gene R. Bellinger
4 "Making a new Case for your H9" by Howard L. Nurse
6 "My Old School Marm" by William I. Nico
11 "Reflex Test" by Dennis L. Smith
12 "An ASCII/Selectric Driver" by Howard L. Nurse
17 "PUT and GET" by Robert Behar and Neal Rogers
18 "HDOS Primer" by Jim Blake
24 "--EDIT (Patches and Hardware Mods)"
26 "Buggin' HUG (Letters)"
28 "A Mail Label Program" by Robert Behar
30 "Classifieds"
30 "Meetings and Club Notices"
31 "Bits and Nibbles" by Jim Blake (replaced Robert Furtaw as editor)
Issue 4 (1978)
3 "Machine Language Subroutines and BASIC" by Chris Kern
8 "Space Wars Patch for Disk System"
8 "Welcome to Adventure"
10 "Reading RTTY on the ET3400" by Louis C. Graue
14 "The BASIC Idea" by Sam Cox et al
18 "TED8 + HASL8 = No Hassle"
23 "Bits and Nibbles"
24 "H11 BASIC Patches" by Bob Meister
27 "--EDIT (Patches and Hardware Mods)"
28 "RTTY to H8?" by Robert Traub
29 "Meetings and Club Notices"
Issue 5 (1979)
[This issue was a very poor editing and layout job with multi-line article titles that were often more cute than informative and the text of the articles continued all over the place. The last article was a program listing set in type so small I needed a magnifier to read it. -- DAW.]
3 "H11/H27 Test Drive" by Jim Blake
6 "The BASIC Idea" by Sam Cox
7 "H8 Front-Panel Timing Effects" by D. E> Hamilton
7 "ETA-3400 Trainer Accessory (Product Announcement)" by Lou Frenzel
11 "The Intelligent Disassembler" by Jim Warner
17 "--EDIT (Patches and Hardware Mods)"
18 "Cassette Interface becomes AT:" by Jim Buszkiewicz
19 "H10 Modifications" by Jim Buszkiewicz
21 "H8-2&4/5 (Convert H-2 for serial port)" by Jim Buszkiewicz
23 "!02 Error(Humorous redefinition of error messages)"
28 "Curing Single-Drive HASL's" by John Beetem
29 "CONFIG.SAV" by H.G. Miller
Issue 6 (1979)
3 "CPM for the H8/H17 System"
8 "Copying disc files from H17 to H27 Test Drive" by Doc Campbell/p>
9 "H8-17 Disc BASIC versus HT11 Disc BASIC Syntax"
10 "Programming Course Coming... Finally!" by Jim Blake
11 "Numbers--" by Chuck Dattolo
13 "Tidbits on MBASIC" by Kathy Borden
14 "Buggin' HUG (letters)"
15 "--EDIT (Patches and Hardware Mods)"
17 "BASIC Ideas" by various contributors
20 "Decimal I/O with the H8 Mainframe" by Alan Day
23 "Fast String Sorting with the HT-11" by Tom Nelson
25 "HT11 Inventory Program"
26 "Morse Code Instruction" by Louis C. Graue
29 "Bits and Nibbles"
31 "H19 Sneak Preview" by Jim Blake
33 "ED.HUG" by Jim Blake
34 "Special H8/H17 Software Releases!"
Issue 7 (1979)
3 "Organization! Confusion with a Structured Definition" by Gene Bellinger
9 "What! FTS Again?!" by Douglas H. McNeill, M.D./p>
11 "The HDOS Type-Ahead Buffer" by J. J. Thompson
12 "The Secret HDOS" by David A. Wallace
12 "A Menu for Basic Programs" by Kevin Hauser
13 "Operating System Diskette File Patch (PATCH)" by David A. Wallace
13 "ET-3400 and Tiny BASIC"
14 "--EDIT (Patches and Hardware Mods)"
17 "Buggin' HUG -- letters"
20 "Meetings and Club Notices"
22 "BASIC Ideas" by Various Contributors
27 "H17 Track Sector Access" by Barry Watzman
30 "Sofware Control for 5-Level Printers" by Adam L. Keller, W9EF
31 "Bits and Nibbles"
Issue 8 (1979)
3 "Editor's Notes" by Jim Blake
4 "Organization! Confusion with a Structured Definition" by Gene Bellinger
7 "String Sort" by Bob Stillman/p>
8 "String Manipulation on H8 Using the Console Driver" by Roger Greenhalgh
9 "H8 Expansion" by Larry Henderson
10 "H14 $150 Sooner" by Max Robinson
12 "H8 Shoehorn" by Howard Nurse
13 "Buggin' HUG -- letters"
17 "ETA-3400 Memory Mod" by James F. Gregory
18 "[HUG Software Catalog Update]"
20 "--EDIT (Patches and Hardware Mods)"
23 "Consultant's Corner"
24 "BP.DVD With the H8-5 Card" by Philip Little
25 "Permutations for the H8" by John Beetem
30 "LP.SYS [with] Tabs, Pad Characters" by Chuck Saddian
31 "Meetings and Club Notices"
32 "Movchr" by Gary Siftar
33 "BASIC Ideas" by Various Contributors
34 "Music Board for the H8" by David Troendle
Issue 9 (January 1980)
Note: with this issue, REMark magazine went from a quarterly to a bi-monthly publication schedule.3 "Editor's Notes: Welcome to a New Decade" by Jim Blake
[sic: technically, a decade starts with the year ending in 1 -- DAW]
4 "BASIC -- I built my Own." by Pat Swayne
9 "Eddie Baby: Software Review" by Fred Popeschil/p>
9 "H19 and H89 Graphics in BASIC"/p>
11 "Single Drive HASL8 Assemble" by Jim Scott
13 "New DDDEF.ACM for HDOS Version 1.5"
[sic: it was actually for HDOS 1.6 -- DAW]
14 "PROLOGUE for MBASIC" by Jim Blake
15 "HDOS Disk Label Changer" by M. Duttweiler
17 "Connecting Multiple RS-232 Devices in Parallel" by "/AIWZ/"
[Anyone know who this was? The "signature" appears in some HDOS code listings, too.]
19 "Consultant's Corner"
19 "HDOS Disk Reset Program"
20 "Buggin' HUG -- letters"
28 "KISS" by Jim Blake
29 "Million Dollar Check Writer" by Jim Tennant
30 "ET-3400 Morse Code Reader" by Louis C. Graue
31 "MBASIC Sort" by Wm. Campbell
30 "MBASIC String Finder" by Robert Kaytor
Issue 10 (May 1980)
3 "They Called Me 'Mr. Brake'" by Jim Blake
4 "Getting Started with MBASIC and HDOS -- Random Files" by William N. Campbell, M.D.
15 "Improvements to FOCAL-8" by Patrick Swayne
16 "The Ins and Outs of MODEMS" by D. C. Shoemaker
20 "INIT and SYSGEN 'how to'"
22 "Buggin' HUG -- letters"
27 "Meetings and Club Notices"
28 "KISS" by Jim Blake
29 "Consultant's Corner"
30 "[HUG Software Catalog Update]"
Issue 11 (Oct 1980)
3 "MicroNET and Other SOFTSTUFF" by Jim Blake
4 "Getting Started with a Text Editor" by William N. Campbell, M.D.
8 "Microsoft BASIC Output Flexibility with Heath-Configured CP/M" by John R. Thomas
9 "Local HUG News"
10 "Keep it Simple, Stupid (KISS)"
14 "Changes to Doc Campbell's Article (in REMark Issue 10)"
15 "New HUG Software"
16 "Do Your Own Thing" by Patrick Swayne
16 "HUG Parts List"
17 "Using Printers with the H11A" by Jim Buszkiewicz
18 "The H8-2 Interface" by Wallace K. Izuo
18 "Consultant's Corner"
19 "File Handling in BASIC" by Jim Tennant
21 "Buggin' HUG"
23 "New Products from Non-Heath Sources"
24 "Changes for HDOS Boot-Up"
26 "Revisions to HUG's Modem Communication System" by A. Richard Tinder
27 "Type-Ahead Buffer for HDOS 1.6" by Robert C. Johnson
28 "Addendum to the Microsoft BASIC Software Reference Manual"
31 "Spinwriter for the H89"
Issue 12 (Nov 1980)
3 "The New HDOS" by Patrick Swayne
4 "'Turnkey' Operation with HDOS Version 1.6" by William N. Campbell, M.D.
9 "A Proposed Graphics Command Set for High Level Languages"
10 "Maintain a Library in Microsoft BASIC" by D. J. Powers
12 "Using AT: in MBASIC" by William W. Moss, M.D.
13 "Set HDOS Stand-Alone"
13 "Cut Down Drive Run Time"
14 "FORTRAN Corner" by James G. Jerling
15 "Tiny BASIC Tricks"
16 "HUG Parts List"
16 "New HUG Products"
17 "Type my Name Ten Times"
19 "File Catalogs in MBASIC"
19 "Voice for the H8"
20 "Build Your Own EPROM Programmer"
22 "Screen Formatting in BASIC" by Bob Thomas
23 "MOUNTALL"
25 "LP: Listing with the H11A"
26 "Buggin' HUG"
29 "A Text Pre-Processor for RUNOFF" by William N. Campbell, M.D.
30 "MBASIC to Machine Code Link"
31 "Local HUG News"
32 "Sunrise, Sunset" by Laird D. Shearer
To be continued...