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When this ad appeared in 73 Magazine in February 1963 I was 4 years old, living on Manhattan Island. Pete N6QW was in the Navy, heading to Midway Island.
Pete writes:
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This ad has a tremendous impact on the foundations of our hobby. The SBE-33 was pure genius in its design and implementation.
- It is a hybrid rig using Germanium transistors –the transistor was only 15 years old
- The Mechanical band switching showed the strong use of mechanical assemblies
- The small size was simply amazing
- The Bi-lateral circuitry predates any Bitx circuits.
- The urban legend was that a team of illuminati were involved in its design (Don Stoner is one name that pops up)
- The Japanese were a quick study and the FTdx100 in 1967 is a result, only better.
- Many are still around in shacks. I have three
Gonset was well known for innovative designs – the Gooney Box is another example. Look at all of his compact mobile equipment.
The next point – the final owner of SBE was Raytheon thusly the next generation of SDR Radio Equipment for the US Air Force can trace its pedigree to the SBE-33.
This was the appliance box of 1963. I saw my 1st SBE-33 (August 1963) when likely you were in the 2nd Grade and I was headed off to Midway island.
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I have an SBE-33 that N6QW sent me. Thanks again Pete!
Also, I'd like to note that W6VR had a very cool name. Faust Gonsett. I just sounds like the name of a real radio guy. Google says this of the given name Faust:
"Faust as a boy's name is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Faust is 'fortunate, enjoying good luck.' Indeed.
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People accuse me of appropriating SBE (as either the company or the organization) for my callsign, but it truly was the random pick when I got my novice call, WN4SBE, and later upgraded to WB4SBE, then finally I chose the vanity call N8SBE, since everyone knew me as the "Side Band Engineer."
ReplyDelete73,
-- Dave, N8SBE
Gonset had a hybrid SSB rig in 1963. The Sidewinder, one for 6, the other for 2. But Faust had moved on.
ReplyDeleteSBE kept going into seventies, though mostly CB sets. They offered a 6M SSB rig that looked a lot like a CB set. I think imported. I can't remember if they or another company offered the matching 432MHz SSB rig.
Bilateral was overrated. I think it was used in the Cosmophone, but in the SBE, it didn't save transistors. Vester's transistor SSB rig reused stages, but a better method. There was also a tube 75M SSB rig in the 1971 Handbook that used a similar setup. And so did the LM373 rig in Ham Radio about 1973.
Was Don Stoner a designer? He was a prolific writer, was influential, and started a few businesses. But other then the superregen CB set that was the basisbof the Benton Harbor Lunchboxes, I'm not sure. I thought the two transisto 2M transmitter that caused Oscar was a manufacturer's diagram, but it's been years since I saw the columnm
I'd guess Lester Earnshaw first, he did the Tucker Tin, designed a manpack, desiged the Hammarlund HQ-215 solid state receiver, and at least one Atlas rig. But he seemed to freelance.
A lot of these people, we knew nothing about other than their writing. So they could have been prolific writers or had secret lives deep in electronics.
You're confusing two famous New Zealanders. Fred Johnson, ZL2AMJ, was the inventor of the Tucker Tin Two in 1961, and a later solid state version. He wrote a number of articles for NZART and was heavily involved in NZ ham education and licensing.
ReplyDeleteLes Earnshaw was ZL1AXX, and he founded SouthCom Communications in San Diego and designed the solid state SC-130, aka AN/URC-87 military manpack radio. Herb Johnson, president and founder of Swan had started Alas Radio by this time and he licensed the designed of the SC-130 which became the heart of the Atlas 180. Earnshaw later founded Kachina Communications in Arizona which did make a couple of obscure ham rigs but mostly focused on the same military portable HF market (with limited success).
Two different guys, both of whom were influential on US ham radio even though they were never well known here.
Don Stoner certainly was, as one of the most prolific ham radio authors for several decades, author of a couple of books, founder of Stoner Communications that served the commercial and marine markets, and the "S" of SGC. He was very definitely a designer! More about Don Stoner can be found in my article here; https://tinyurl.com/33bwd8tr
73, Bob W9RAN