[Boatanchors] Collins 75S-3 vs. Collins 51J-4

[Greg Roecker]

Jeff,

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and operational performance is in the 
mode of the operator.

I have a CE 200V paired with a 51J4.  I love both of them.  The styling is 
very similar, and they do look great next to each other.  I operate solely 
SSB with the CE200V and I don't use them as my main station, so for casual 
use the 51J4 is an operational good choice for me.  The lack of a product 
detector and low BFO injection make riding the RF gain control a necessity 
during SSB ops...not to mention minor touch up of BFO setting when changing 
bands.  Riding the RF gain control is work...but it's acceptable to me 
because I like the look and the performance of the 51J4.  It would be very 
irritating if it were my main station and I had to operate that way all the 
time.  I would think for CW operation it would be very labor intensive to 
ride the RF gain and copy and touch up tuning and log.....you get the 
picture.

Good luck with the 100V.

73,

Greg Roecker/n4osj
Roswell, Georgia