Signal/One

Signal/One was a manufacturer of high performance SSB and CW HF radio communications transceivers initially based in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States.

Signal/One Model CX-7 circa 1970. Price when new: US$2395

History

The company started as a division of NCR in Florida. A key executive was Dick Ehrhorn, ham callsigns W4ETO and W0ID. Beginning in the 1960s with the Signal/One CX7, ("S1", as they were called) the company made radios that were priced well above the competition and offered many advanced features for the time, such as passband tuning, broadband transmission, dual receive, built-in IAMBIC keyer, electronic digital read out, solid state design, QSK and RF clipping. A Signal/One radio was said to be a complete high performance, station in a box.

While marketed to the affluent radio amateur, it has been suggested that the primary market for Signal/One, like Collins, was military, State Department, and government communications. Although prized for the performance and advanced engineering, Signal/One's products did not sell as well as hoped, and the company gradually fell on hard times. From the 1970s though the 1990s, every few years, Signal/One was spun off, sold, and resurfaced at another location.

Collectors

The surviving Signal/One products are sought after and actively collected. These include the CX7, CX7A, CX7B, CX11 and Milspec models. The last Signal/One radio was a re-engineered ICOM IC-781.

See also

• Collins Radio
• Icom
• Vintage amateur radio

External links

• www.hammanuals.com Links to Signal/One resources on the web
• Signal/One rigs rigreference.com
• amforever.com Signal/One CX7 Operation and Maintenance Manual
• K5OG Signal One Site K5OG Signal One Site