[SignalOne] Some SIGNAL ONE History

[Dr. J. R. Sheller]

Here is history I jotted down.. All accurate except some dates might be 
off.. Let me know what you think.

Doc K8RR

I have been reading the old archives, and noticed a lot of interest in 
the history of SIGNAL ONE. For what its worth, I will go thru my entire 
history with S/O since 1969.

I believe the first time I saw a S/O was at Dayton in 1969. It looked 
really neat, but I had an ’S’ line.. so I was set. Later that year, John 
, WB8AKU..now W8JG , ordered a CX7. I am not sure when it arrived, but I 
think it was during the winter of 69/70. All the hams and DXers wanted 
to try it out.. It was neat, but it spent more time in transit back and 
forth to FL, than it did on his desk. Later that year [1970] I ordered 
one for myself, after being assured by the factory that all the problems 
were fixed. I REALLY liked the radio..but god it was a pain to keep 
running. Early in 71, I bought a 2^nd CX7.. this way I could have one in 
my shack while repairing the other. Some time in 71, my friend John 
bought a PA70V from Dick Ehrhorn W4ETO. [ for those who don’t remember, 
the PA70V was a “vapor” [water] cooled amplifier that had true QSK]. 
Dick was one of the people who designed the S/O. He left S/O, which I 
believe was a division of NCR.

With Dick having left S/O in Jan 1971 to form ETO INC. , the outlook for 
S/O looked bleak. I have been told that NCR saw the S/O fiasco as a 
black hole of money..and began action to divest itself of S/O. I have no 
idea of how many CX7’s came out of FL , but they never seemed to get any 
better.. most buyers seem to have multiple problems. The reputation of 
S/O was headed for the basement. I sold my 2 CX7’s in mid 1971 [ sold is 
not quite accurate..gave away is more factual ]. Not much was heard from 
S/O till somewhere in mid 1972. All registered owners of CX7’s, got a 
letter from a fellow named Frank Quevas ,W6AOA. He was a big time 20M 
DXER from southern California.. and was loud.. { a pair of 4-1000’s ], 
both on the air and in person. I am not sure of Frank’s title, but he 
was the front man for the Signal One Division of CMI.

When you read Frank’s letter, you were convinced that the “new” CX7A 
would be better than “sex drugs and rock and roll”. The hype and 
promises were unbelievable. Milspec parts..100 hour burn in.. everything 
redesigned. I talked to Frank [W6AOA] on the air and the phone many 
times.. He was a salesman of the first order. Being a slow learner, I 
stepped up to the plate and bought one. I thought the "stick on CX7A 
label " over the CX7 label was a nice touch. To be honest, I only had a 
few failures with the CX7A,but looking inside the radio revealed a basic 
CX7.

During 1972, Dick Ehrhorn [Mr. ALPHA] and I became good friends.. He and 
his wife would come to Ohio for me to do their dental work.. I made a 
few trips to FL visiting the original ETO plant in Brooksville. Dick and 
I made arrangements to meet in Las Vegas in Jan 73 for the Ham Convention.

I must digress somewhat to lay the foundation for the next part of the 
story. Some of you will remember K2IXP, Larry Pace. A great operator who 
traveled around the world on what appeared to be a continuous 
DX-expedition. His QSL card said “Around the world with K2IXP”. Larry 
had left a pretty good engineering job at [ I think] IBM. It turns out 
that after returning from his world travels, Larry was hired as the 
chief engineer at S/O in Gardena, CA. Because of my purchase of a CX7A, 
Larry and I got to be pretty friendly. When he found out that I was 
coming to Las Vegas in Jan 73 [or 74], he said he would come to Vegas 
and drive my wife and I back to stay at his place in Gardena, CA. He 
said it would be a great opportunity to meet some of the SO CAL DXERS 
and to spend some time at the S/O plant.. It really sounded like a great 
plan to me.

Larry and his wife picked us up in Vegas and we drove on to CA. The next 
day he took me to the the HQ’s of Signal One.. WOW.. There were CX7’s 
stacked to the ceiling that had been returned for repair , upgrade or 
modification. A realistic number would be 20-25. Larry said they had no 
money from CMI to do the work.. Production was on about 3 20 ft tables.. 
with nothing happening. The stock room had almost bare shelves. About 
that time Frank, W6AOA came in to welcome me and assure me that things 
were a little disorganized now, but everything was getting better. I 
remember the phone ringing a lot and the secretary either not answering 
or telling the caller no one was available. It was little scary and 
quite disappointing.

I want to set one thing straight. Larry Pace was..and is.. a straight 
shooter. He was an employee.. really had no authority to do much. It was 
obvious to me the company was being run into the ground.. I had heard 
rumors that S/O was not paying their suppliers..and that they had never 
paid NCR in FL in full for the S/O name and assets. Another shock that 
day was seeing a “mock up” of the S/O separate receiver and transmitter. 
These were just the cabinet and front panel.. They NEVER had any 
electronics in side. I think both CQ and HAM RADIO had a couple of small 
ads with picture of these ‘coming attractions’. NONE were ever produced.

After recovering from the shock at S/O, Larry said lets go to where all 
the surplus stores are. There are a lot of neat surplus outlets in CA. 
About the 3^rd store we went into, I made a startling discovery. In one 
bin, I found the following parts for a CX7 S/O's: PTO’s,..BE heat sinks, 
pushbutton assemblies and meters. I pointed these out to Larry and he 
said “I’ll tell you on the way home.” It seems some of the employees 
hired by CMI for S/O were not getting paid, so they “liberated” parts 
and sold them to the surplus stores.

After this day of surprises, Larry and I had a long talk. He said the 
company was dying a horrible death, and that a lot of people were 
getting screwed. He was planning on leaving as soon as he had another 
job. I asked him about my CX7A and he said.” dump it”. As soon as I got 
back to Ohio, that is exactly what I did. I am not sure how much longer 
CMI..S/O lasted.. but it wasn’t very long. On the air and at hamfests, 
people talked about all the hams that got screwed. The bottom line is 
that the S/O in CA was a big joke. All it really did was further tarnish 
the Signal One name. Larry Pace is now K7DD in AZ. A helluva contester 
and homebrewer, he also does some S/O repairs.. Still a great guy who 
got caught up in some corporate wet dream.

The next I heard about S/O was in 74-75.. Don Payne from Payne Radio in 
TN was pushing a revival of S/O. They were looking for investors to 
restart the company in NJ. I know some people who were investors, but 
their names will not be mentioned here. The word began to circulate, 
that a new ..very smart [ some described him as a genius.] engineer, was 
redesigning the radio from A-Z. This fellow was Don Rohers. I have never 
heard any one question his engineering or design ability. He also had a 
great personality and was a real people person.

With a good deal of advertising and word of mouth, S/O began to ship 
radios. The new radio was a CX11.. which was an almost a total redesign 
from the CX7 Many, many improvements were made. I don’t know how many 
radio were made and shipped from NJ…even Paul Kollar W8CXS wasn’t sure., 
but thinks the number of CX11's was about 11.

The move to AZ was in late 75 or early 76. Don redesigned and improved 
the radio again and out popped the CX11A. The parts were much better.. 
Gold SMB connectors and MIL spec coax inside. Sockets for all solid 
state parts.. It seemed like things were going well for S/O and Don.

A very good friend of mine worked at S/O in AZ for about 4years. His 
observation was that Don had 2 faults. He was a compulsive/obsessive 
about making the world’s BEST radio. He was constantly 
tinkering..modifying..redesigning. He was never satisfied. This led to 
his second problem. Because he was TOTALLY focused on “the RADIO”,… he 
promised unrealistic things and never really paid attention the business 
ends of the company. The more he got behind, the deeper he dug the 
hole.. but ALWAYS tinkering with the product.

Around 1981, Don was working on a new radio, the MILSPEC 1030. He wanted 
to compete with the Collins 380, which was a very expensive radio. He 
never settled on a final design, but the radio was Quality. Some hams 
like it better than the CX11A..Some like the CX11A better.. Whichever is 
right ..these are two great radios. Some where in the 80’s/early 90's, 
Don and S/O got a govt. contract with the US Marines. Also some where in 
the late 80’s or early 90’s.. Don began work on another radio. It is my 
understanding that after a great deal of research, he decided to use an 
IC-781 platform and repackage it with the Don Rohers touch. You could 
either buy the finished product from him.. or send him your IC781 and 
$8000 to have it turned into a 1030C.

I am not sure how many guys sent him radios or money, but the whole 
program began to unravel in the late 90’s. I spoke to Don in 1999. At 
that time I had 2 IC781’s, but was moving from my 20 acre antenna farm, 
in Ohio, to 1.5 acres in the Upper Peninsula of MI. I ask Don flat out 
what would $8000 do for my IC 781’s that had been thru 1000’s of hours 
of operation and contesting with out a failure. Don couldn’t give an on 
point answer, but promised me that the improvements were enormous. I 
have never had a chance to operate one of these “souped up” 781’s, but 
would like to hear from anyone who has

My last S/O I owned was a CX11A late model. My friend John W8JG [ 
mentioned at the beginning] was getting rid of most of his ham gear. 
This was a MINT radio with ALL the options..paper work and a speaker. I 
think I bought the CX11A in 89 or 90.. Like an idiot, I sold it to buy 
another 781, because the CX11A was not computer compatible.

I am now looking for another CX11A.. I hope you enjoyed my walk down 
memory lane with Signal One. If any of you find a mistake or error in my 
story.. don’t hesitate to bring it to my attention so we can correct it.

PS..as of 14 Jan, 2006 I now have another S/O to play with.. CX11A..SN 
10649701. I am looking for a speaker if any one has one that they might 
part with.

Thanks for reading:

Doc Sheller K8RR ex K8RZ..KN8Z..W8MZ..WA8ZDF..WN8ZCT