How we did electronics in the 1980s...

[GEuser]

I red the 1st page and then the previous one , I must be way behind the times as in the 80's I was just starting out on valves (tubes) in the hobby , it was tremendous fun with all sorts of stuff , plenty of book reading as I never saw the internets until 2000 or so .

RSGB handbooks were real good .

[WarSim]

There must have been large availability differences from country to country.  When I started in the late 60 to 70s with computing sciences it was the last of the punch cards which quickly switched to the 12 1/2" hard case floppy then the actual 12" floppy. 
Acoustic Modem wise starting with a 30 or 80 baud modem but no Usenet just NISTA at first (sorry a bit fuzzy on the actual acronym).
Etching wise obtaining copper clad if you where not a board house was effectively impossible.  I had to start with applica on epoxy board (called resin boards now) or fibre board (like HDF). 
Apparently by the time lines stated here there was a up to a 30 year delay for Canada.  Surprising to sat the least. 


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[fcb]

You were lucky. In the 1980's the only places here that had computers were the banks ( IBM mainframes and dedicated banking terminals in the branches, and with a printer that was either a Diablo or a specialised one to print in the account books), in the university ( HP mainframe, complete with robed attendants), and a few large businesses where a computer was used to do some specialised functions like accounting, data processing or such. Personal computers were mosly the very expensive ZX ones, and some schools had Apple ]['s in a room.

By 1990 you had companies offering PC clones and networking to business for accounts, inventory and such, all with a service contract and yearly fees that included then an annual service ( dedust and check it works well) and support by a trained technician.

Internet was something that was offered via a gateway on the Prestel clone operated by the national TELCO, and was just a page where you got a UNIX shell to use. Modems were 300 baud, 1200/75 or later 2400baud. Then came the first 19200 baud units ( what speed) and they pretty much stayed that way till you had 56k modems, which are still common as ADSL is not going to ever work on some of the old long copper lines. You still buy them new here.

The ZX (I'm assuming you meant ZX80/81/Spectrum) was anything but expensive.  I got given a ZX80 in 1980 (my grandma bought one  to do her accounts on - gave it me when she got bored of writting her own accounts software...), my brother and I got a ZX81 for Christmas in 1981 and a Spectrum 48K the  year after.  I seem to remember the ZX81 being £49.95 and the 16K Memopak was the same again (including velcro pad for holding it in place) - we programmed it that much that we ended up having to use meccano rods to work the membrane keypad.

[netdudeuk]

It was fifty quid for the kit, which I bought and waited six weeks for and the assembled one was quite a bit more but came with a mains adapter.