AWA Member Tom Perera, W1TP, writes:
"When I was a kid in 1953 with my new Novice license in hand I went down to Harrison Radio in Radio Row in New York City.
I bought a new Collins 75A2 receiver.
Living in center-city NYC, a local AM broadcast station signal swamped and overloaded the receiver and made it very insensitive on most frequencies.
I wrote the Collins company for help and got a personal letter from Mr. Collins in which he apologized for my problems with my Collins receiver.
He said that he had made me a tunable L-C circuit and mounted it in a box with appropriate connectors so that I could use it in the antenna line to my receiver. He explained how to tune it so that it would notch out the interfering broadcast signal. It worked perfectly and I was able to hear even very weak signals after installing it.
It is amazing how personal even a big company like that was back in the 1950s.
When I went back to Harrison Radio to buy a matching Collins 32V2 transmitter the salesman told me that he could not sell it to me.
He said a ham had to BUILD his first transmitter and sold me an Eldico transmitter kit instead of the Collins.
That was the best advice I ever got and it started me on my way to enjoy ham radio for the past 70 years.
Can you imagine a salesman passing up a big Collins sale like that to teach a kid a lesson ?
73, Tom Perera - W1TP"
