[Collins] Re: Collins Digest, Vol 22, Issue 2

[Gerald]

On Thu, 2006-02-02 at 16:15 -0500, Ray wrote:
> My 30S-1 is very clearly marked SN# 28. I've looked carefully and there 
> is no way it appears that it might have been SN# 128 with the 1 removed. 
> Does that mean at least two engineering models might have escaped out 
> into the real world?

I'd expect that nearly all the engineering models "escaped" into ham
shacks, from those of the lab technicians, to some of the engineers, the
sales department, and management from group heads to Art himself. If
there was an archive of engineering models, I didn't know about it.
Surely many were sold through Collins Surplus that didn't get allocated
to important employees. There tended to be a line at the door each day
when the surplus store opened, in those days only a day or two a week.
There nearly always were great bargains in test equipment, and
occasionally things like engineering models and rigs use in production
test jigs, as well as the jigs themselves, reject and overrun parts from
nuts and bolts, sheets of metals and PC boards (blank, etched, stuffed
with parts and covered with solder from falling off the soldering
machine conveyor into the solder pot).

> Are engineering models of more interest to 
> collectors than mere production line versions?

Those collecting the first might like them better than some arbitrary
serial number.

It might be a check that the earliest of engineering models could have
had parts marked with rubber stamps (and paint) instead of silk
screened. The rubber stamp letters will have sharper corners than the
silkscreens (often the artwork would have been made with a lettering
cricket with guarantees rounded corners) and varying densities within
the strokes, sometimes less paint in the middle of the stroke than the
edges. There can be poorer alignment of the hand stamped component
labels too both in each label and with respect to the edges of the
chassis.
> 
> Ray, W2EC

The engineering models would not have had the same updates as the latest
produced when they were liberated, but those updates can have been added
later but that remove the originality of the low serial number that may
be important to an antique collector who wants them as original and with
the patina of much use.
-- 
73, Jerry, K0CQ, Technical Advisor to the CRA
All content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer