[Hammarlund] SP-600 (Recapping Completed)

[Carl]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Nickels" <ranickel at comcast.net>
To: <hammarlund at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Hammarlund] SP-600 (Recapping Completed)


> On 1/28/2012 10:00 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
>> Evidently the same conglomerate bought GC and Philmore and a bunch of 
>> other familiar names
> I posted the following on  another reflector a couple of weeks ago when
> the topic of General Cement came up, and will pass it along here for
> historical purposes since the thread winds through several prominent ham
> radio manufacturers:
>
> ---------------
>
> Founded in 1930 with a home-brewed formula for cement used on wood radio
> cabinets and speaker cones, the GC Electronics company remains based in
> Rockford IL even though many products are now sourced elsewhere:
> http://www.gcelectronics.com/aboutus.asp
>
> When I first moved to this area 25 years ago, there were still several
> distributors catering to the Radio-TV repair trade who had large
> pegboard and rack displays of the many GC products.  Of course those
> stores are long gone, but that's why the GC alignment tools became so
> ubiquitous - it was easier to just add a set along with the days order
> of tubes and parts than to try to find the tool that disappeared in the
> tube caddy.
>
> GC and many other companies became owned by Textron in the 1950s as
> Royal Little began amassing that conglomerate.  Around the same time,
> the first wave of CB radio hit and early manufacturers like World Radio
> Laboratories were swamped with orders that far exceeded their production
> and financial capacity.    Leo Meyerson approached GC about buying
> Globe, but when Textron executives saw what was happening in mid-1959,
> they instead created the Textron Electronics division, with GC and Globe
> Electronics the leading brands.  The factory in Council Bluffs was
> expanded with Leo as President, and a fellow named Roger Mace (who Leo
> hired away from Heathkit where he'd designed a number of transmitters
> from the AT-1 through DX-100) as his new Director of Engineering.
>
> Before long it was decided that Globe products could be manufactured
> more efficiently in the 300,000 sq. ft. GC factory in Rockford, and the
> Globe operation (including many key employees) were moved to Rockford.
> Leo was encouraged to stay on as President, but declined to move, sold
> off his Textron stock,  and stayed in Council Bluffs to run WRL.     Not
> surprisingly,  GC soon ran into quality problems and asked Leo to come
> to help, or if he was interested, to buy the company back.    Leo felt
> the Globe brand had been damaged by Textrons mistakes and declined to do
> so,  and Globe folded soon thereafter (I ended up with a couple of Globe
> "Mobiline Six" transceivers that were in process at the time, partially
> assembled artifacts of that era).  GC remained part of Textron for a
> time, but was later sold;  Greenlee,  a former Rockford-based sister
> company that made the famous chassis punches, remains part of Textron
> today.
>
> Meanwhile, fellow Iowan Art Collins was making big waves in the radio
> world with the KWM-1 and KWM-2 transceivers; Leo decided that single
> sideband was the future and formed Galaxy Electronics in 1962.   He
> hired a fellow named Marvin Gehr who was a technician at Collins on the
> KWM-2 team, made him an engineer, and put him in charge of developing a
> single-sideband transceiver, which became the Galaxy 300.   Gehr wasn't
> a graduate engineer, but as a math major later rented time on an early
> computer to design the LC filters that allowed Galaxy to win the
> contract for the FRR-230 military receiver.   Thanks to Leo's business
> acumen,  WRL and Galaxy Electronics enjoyed success throughout the 1960s
> and into the 70s, long after Globe passed into history.
>
> GC Electronics also survives, and still operates out of Rockford, along
> with master distributor Waldom Electronics (once GC-Waldom).  A small
> family-owned company called LKG Industries that was started by a former
> President of GC Electronics acquired a handful of other legacy
> "pegboard" brands including Philmore, Datak, and  Pfanstiehl, and also
> still operates out of Rockford.
>
> 73, Bob W9RAN
>

Thanks for that great writeup Bob, it sure brings back memories. When I was 
transferred to Chicago 1970-73 and living in Roselle, I made many trips to 
Rockford as it was a one city source for just about anything I wanted.

Carl
KM1H