[Collins] Question about Collins and Eldico Clones

[Dr.Gerald Johnson]

As I recall Jay Miller's book, Collins did bid, but threw in a development 
cost adder for what was already a commercial product and so was 
priced way out of line.

The Eldico crew, like the designer of the Heathkit SB line learned a lot 
about radio design at Collins before they went their separate ways to 
compete. And if their history was like it was when I worked there, they 
were fired in an economy move so there was no way to impose a 
noncompete agreement on them. I left on my own to go to graduate 
school and there was never a mention of a noncompete agreement, 
and I know others from the high power transmitter department went 
directly to work at competing makers of broadcast transmitters, like 
Gates at Quincy.

Didn't the Eldico use Collins PTO and filters?

I remember at an ARRL convention in St. Louis probably 1959 or 60, the 
chef engineer of Eldico gave a talk on linear amplifier and power 
transformer design. He was ultra conservative about copper loading 
that made his transformers run cool, but they were heavy and costly.

My impression is that the Eldico linears were more common than the 
radios.

73, Jerry, K0CQ, Technical Advisor to the CRA

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