[Collins] Boatanchor history

[kiyoinc at attglobal.net]

** Reply to note from r390a Sat, 10 Jul 2004 04:01:32 -0400 (EDT)


> >When I got my ticket back in '79,
..
> >...  I remember the pallet-size-by-6'+ high pile of S-Lines George 
> >couldn't find buyers for to save his skin [although even at that they were 
> >out of MY teenage pizza-joint-wage budget]. 
> > 
> >Sadly, The Radio-TV Lab is gone now...

Dave wrote: 

> >I can recall Collins sitting on hamfest tables "begging" to be taken home. 
> >When you were running Collins in the 70's and even the 80's, many hams would 
> >begin to nitpick that the radio was distorted and drifting off frequency. 
> >"What do you want to run that tube stuff," they would say.  How the times 
> >have changed! 
> >

I did get to some Hamfests in the mid 1970's and again about 1980. I don't
recall piles of unwanted S-Lines.  In the mid 1970's there were vendors
at Gaithersburg (Maryland) who had S-Lines (and Drakes) wrapped in plastic
to simulate a "factory fresh" look. 

There were not piles of them though. 

I recall a black ham with his lady, she said, "Collins, that's what you came
for?"  and he replied, "That's not the right model, I want a 32S-3."

People who appreciate QUALITY were looking for premium boatanchors.  

About 1980(?), when I bought my first SB-303 at Dayton, I paid about $150
for it. I wanted it to slave to my SB-101 ala KWM-2/75S-3. I could not find
nor afford the Heathkit equivalent of the 312B-5.  Even now, a 75S-1 and
312B-4 is half the price of a 312B-5.  Explain that.  

$150 in 1980 is a lot more than $150 today.  

If there had been S-Line's with "Must sell this junque, will take any
reasonable offer." I would have been all over it.   

I really don't "get" the drifting off frequency reports. I put one of my
refurbed SB-303's on a good counter.  From a cold start, it drifted less
than 200 Hertz in a week.  I'd expect any S-line to do as well, once it got
past the tube heating up.

de ah6gi/4