[Boatanchors] Estates and Interesting, 4-24

[Richard Knoppow]

        It would be interesting to know the background of some of the  
business decisions that were made by the various manufacturers around 
the time of the NC-300 and 400.  There was a lot of change and 
competition in communications equipment around that time.  There is a 
book, or at least a master's thesis in this somewhere if not already 
written.  I think Collins shocked the industry with the 75A and 51J 
receivers, which were arguably revolutionary in concept. The established 
big three, Hallicrafters, Hammarlund and National, were making 
essentially up-graded and re-styled versions of pre-war receivers in 
1949 when the Collins receivers came out.  I don't count the SX-42 as a 
really new design.  It was complex and combined FM with AM but was still 
an essentially conventional single converson receiver.   The closest to 
competition was the SP-600 but its obvious that Hammarlund got caught 
with their pants down since the receiver seems to have been 
substantially re-designed after its initial announcement.  The next 
major innovations were from Collins with the mechanical filter (actually 
invented at RCA) and Racal with the Wadley loop RA-17.   There seems to 
have been a rush after the 75A to design double-conversion receivers and 
then to provide for SSB.  Eventually, Collins was out competed by 
companies like Drake who offered equal or superior performance at 
substantially lower prices, at least in the ham market.  National had 
been a traditional supplier to the U.S. Navy but was being challenged  
by others like TMC and even RCA.  I think National was having financial 
problems around the time of the NC-400 and maybe didn't have the R&D 
budget necessary to meet the challanges.   Anyway I didn't mean to write 
a dissertation here.
On 4/24/2015 7:20 PM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
> While the NC300 and NC303 were ham band only, National went back to
> gen. cov. for the NC400.  It was mostly built for the U.S. Gov't.
> Supposed to be a hot rx but like the HRO500, kind of temperamental.  I
> have never owned one.  They fetch high prices when in good condx.  I
> mostly avoid gen. cov. sets.
>
> 73
>
> Rob
> K5UJ
>

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL