1944GPW
Veteran Member
If you had walked into a Heathkit store to purchase a brand new H-11 back in the late 70's, the hard copy device they could have sold you with the system would have been the H36 which was a rebadged Decwriter II (LA36).
I have a Fall 1978 DEC Sales Catalog and the list price of a bare-bones LA36 DECwriter II back then was from $1595 upwards. With optional extras of a 14-key keypad, 20mA current loop interface, paper-out sensor, extra ribbon and 90-day on-site warranty it was $1825. The faster LA120 DECwriter III was even more expensive starting at $3072.
I have no idea what was Heathkit's price for the rebadged unit, but according to the inflation calculator $1595 is over $5800 in today's dollars so it's no wonder people were looking for all sorts of cheaper printing alternatives.