He Makes What We Hams Use - Art Collins
June 1953 QST

Arthur (Art) Collins, who began his radio career as a Ham, founded Collins Radio in 1933, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Just as civil aviation enthusiasts long ago began associating Wichita, Kansas, with Cessna, Lear, Beechcraft, et al, and its airplanes, radio people associate Cedar Rapids with Collins Radio Company. In fact - and this is a fact - electronics companies like RF Micro Devices, now Qorvo (see origin of the name) and Skyworks Solutions set up RFIC design centers there back in the early 1990s in order to exploit the availability of highly talented engineers who worked for Collins. It was a time when defense industry contracts were winding down and cellphones were winding up.

He Makes What We Hams Use

Art Collins, W0CXX Collins Radio Company

Although s.s.b. has been getting a big play at W0CXX lately, Art operates c.w. and f.s.k., too. He's likely to be on any band from 3.5 Mc. through 28 Mc. where you can work him almost any night or weekend. The call W0CXX was 9CXX when it was assigned in 1923 and 9CXX immediately became a well-known call. Early QSOs that gave Art the biggest kick were on 20 meters with 1QP and 6TS. Just the day before, on January 22, 1925, these stations had established on that band the first daylight coast-to-coast contact. Art was also one of the pioneers on 5 and 10 meters and worked both 21-Mc. c.w. and 7-Mc. s.s.b. on their recent opening days. Ham-shack wallpaper includes an A-1 Operator Award; W0CXX can qualify for both WAS and DXCC. Art likes to recall how he was helped by friendly amateurs when building his first transmitters. That he returned the help is known to all of us, since talks by Art Collins at conventions and articles written by him for QST - like the pi-network story in the February, 1934, issue - have inspired many a ham to build a better rig.

Posted September 16, 2020
(updated from original post on 7/21/2016)