Dick ) writes:
On Tue, 01 May 2007 03:40:06 GMT, "Porgy Tirebiter"
wrote:

The "gullwings" were a classic....the Signal/Ones are not. Read the CURRENT
reviews...
They are a short run trouble prone pain in the ass. Support was poor when
they were in business...non-existent now.
Would you rather have a Heathkit SB-104 instead?


No, I would rather have a Signal One. The reviews you referenced
don't support your view at all. In the first one, the guy was trying
to get an Icom 781 converted to a Signal One. He got hosed. The
radio up for auction has nothing to do with that conversion other than
it has the name. In the second one, the guy loves them. In my
opinion, it is a classic radio in the truest sense of the word.

I don't even get how you can turn an Icom into a Signal One.

But obviously for collecting purposes, the Signal One is a standout.
I can't imagine that many being made, so that makes it collectible.
It was a great leap forward when it came out almost forty years ago.
Most rigs were still tube based, and the Signal One comes along all
solid state except for the PA, and featuring things that would take
some years for the competition to put into equipment. It was also
an American company, when the balance was shifting away from those
and to Japanese radio manufacturers.

It's always interesting to do some math when looking at old things.
The Signal One came out in 1969, which is 38 years ago. Go back
38 years before 1969, and that would be 1931. Very few people were
using rigs from 1931 in 1969 (though oddly some of the early Signal
One ads did have a comparison along those lines, and at least one
ad used 1920 style typeface in the headlines), and some might consider
the 1931 rigs collector's items in 1969 (though, there seemed far
less interest in collecting old radios then than now).

Michael VE2BVW