The HW-8  80...15 meter QRP CW Transceiver came on the market in 1976 and was produced until 1983. It was the successor of the HW-7 that came on the market in 1972. The HW-7 covered the 40...15 meter bands but had both VFO and crystal transmit provisions. The HW-8 was an improvement over the HW-7 in terms of receiver sensitivity and stability. Both the HW-7 and the HW-8 had direct convertion receivers. The HW-8 was then replaced by the HW-9. The HW-9 had a superheterodyne receiver and covered the 80...10 meter bands and was produced until 1991.

When I got my HW-8 it was defective. The output transistor was broken and I replaced it with a 2N3553. I have repaired it and did the following modifications:
It has an audio amplifier to drive a built in speaker or low impedance headphones. It has scale illumination. Further more modifications to come is DSB (or possibly SSB). I have also repainted it in the correct Heathkit color because a previous owner had painted it in an ugly (very far from Heathkit-green) color. The original dial knob was missing so I have mounted a slightly different knob instead.