[Collins] Question about Collins and Eldico Clones

[Lawrence Mayhew]

What the DOD procurement process did to the electronics industry was not
limited to Collins or radio equipment. I was an engineer at Tektronix when
the government decided to commission Simpson, Hickock, and a couple of
others to produce copies of Tektronix scopes in violation of US Patent laws.
Tek did file suit in Federal Court, underwent 11 years of expensive
litigation and in the end the lawyers for Tek won big time and Tek itself
lost because it never recovered the profits lost to the copiers.
Does anyone know if the procurement activities of DOD are as immune from the
law as they were then?
Larry in Seattle

-----Original Message-----
From: collins-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:collins-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of David Thompson
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 6:21 PM
To: Misic, George J.; Freeberg, Scott (STP); collins at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Collins] Question about Collins and Eldico Clones


Poor Don Merten K2AAA will turn over in his grave.  He maintained the Eldico
Twins were not S line clones.  Eldico was bought by REL in 1958 and Don
headed the Eldico division.  DOD decided that Collins was too costly so they
sent plans to several manfacturers including REL/Eldico now called Reliance.
Don won the deal (at about 50% of the collins pricing).   The original
contract was for MARS stations but as with any GSA contract anyone in the
Government could buy off the contract.
Don actually only sold the S-119 system with was the receiver, transmitter,
power supply, station console and all the cables.  The S-119 documentation
had sections for each unit.  About 1,500 S-119's were delivered on contract.
Eldico sold a few to hams and Collins sued but that never made it to court
as Heath came out with the SB 300 series and Sommerkamp/Yaesu came out with
the FR100/Ft100.  Collins gave it up as DOD was willing to back up Eldico.
By 1963 the MARS stations were only buying KWM2's anyway!
Dave K4JRB

----- Original Message -----
From: "Misic, George J." <GMisic at medrad.com>
To: "Freeberg, Scott (STP)" <Scott.Freeberg at guidant.com>;
<collins at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 5:00 PM
Subject: RE: [Collins] Question about Collins and Eldico Clones


Scott and Group,

Yes, they did.  I've got one of their complete stations, the transmitter,
receiver, power supply, and station console.  They work quite well, but are
[in my opinion] nowhere near as pretty.  73.

George KE8RN

-----Original Message-----
From: collins-bounces at mailman.qth.net

Did Eldico ever try to sell their S-line clone to the hams?  Or was it
strictly limited to military sales only?

73, Scott WA9WFA
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