[Elecraft] HAMFEST WINNERS & HISTORY CORRECTED

[David Gilbert]

I was working at Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids when that happened. Art 
kept dumping money into the computer business, but was always behind the 
curve technically.  He might even have been able to sell some smaller 
systems, but he wouldn't let anyone do that and kept chasing the big 
systems where his specs weren't good enough to actually sell anything.  
Even by 1973 everything we built was still magnetic core memory in spite 
of the fact that semiconductor memory had been introduced elsewhere a 
couple of years earlier.

At one point Art literally sold the big backup generators (I think there 
were three of them) at the Cedar Rapids plant where I worked and 
immediately leased them back ... the cash was needed to meet payroll.  I 
think it only lasted two weeks if I remember correctly. Shortly 
thereafter he was forced to sell anyway, and Rockwell made the best offer.

Collins Radio might still be in independent business if Art hadn't bet 
the farm on computers since the avionics business was very solid, and 
the military business was decent.  Art was a terrible business manager 
and wouldn't listen to anyone that tried to tell him something he didn't 
want to hear ... one of those top down guys that outgrew his expertise.

73,
Dave  AB7E



On 3/30/2022 8:54 PM, KENT TRIMBLE wrote:
>
>
> Art Collins was forced to sell the Collins Radio Company to North 
> American Rockwell (not Raytheon) in order to avoid bankruptcy after 
> literally betting the store on his C-system computer. It was therefore 
> Rockwell-Collins (not Raytheon) that built the KWM-380 and Senator 
> Barry Goldwater received the first production radio.
>
> 73,
>
> Kent  K9ZTV
>