As Steve Wozniak has been to personal computers, so was Arthur Andrew Collins before him, to ham radio. Using crude materials largely created for other purposes (a cylindrical oatmeal box, a lump of coal, a glass rod from a towel rack, a coil from a Model T), he and his childhood friend Merrill Lund built their first radio in the basement of Lund's Cedar Rapids, Iowa home. It was 1918 and the boys were nine. The first commercial radio broadcast had taken place in 1906, but the concepts of radio and principles of operation were available to everyone. The two boys strung a 60-foot wire for an antenna out the basement window of Lund's house, and when they got it working they tuned into the US Navy station WWV in Arlington, Virginia, using the frequency of that station as a reference point. The first radio they built went to the Promised Land when the antenna was struck by lightning. The second radio was built at Collins' house at the request of Lund's father.

From Iowa to Aerospace

M. H. (Merle) Collins, Arthur's father, was one of the early captains of agribusiness. His firm, Collins Farms, managed up to 60,000 acres of Iowa farmland. Merle didn't initially have much time or regard for his sons' dabbling with radio waves. He was the pioneer of outfitting farm machinery with electric lights so that they could run for twenty four hours a day when the season demanded. He equipped his farms with large industrial cultivating equipment and amalgamated farmlands to grow a single crop under centralized management. He separated livestock from grains. He made a lot of money farming. Merle didn't like the clutter and junk of amateur radio. But his son Art had different interests which the family tolerated.

Art had a dedication to the infant field of radio that would last his entire life. Hardly more than a baby himself when he started, Collins was not alone in his fascination with radio. After the first patent for a crystal radio was filed by Greenleaf Whittier Pickard, crystal radio sets soon became popular with children and adults. For a very small cost, a few parts and a little assembly and experimentation, one could tickle a silicon or galena crystal with a sharpened strand of wire to find broadcasting frequencies and then convert the broadcasts to audible signals one could listen to through an ear piece. No power source was required - only the power in the broadcast wave itself.

The Pioneer Part

But Collins' interest went beyond that of the typical farm boy with dreams of broadcasting from the rooftop club of the Empire Hotel or flying away with the Army Air Corps. His interest was in perfecting the methods and the technology used in the radio itself, and he soon had a room full of broadcasting and receiving equipment. When the FCC began offering amateur radio licenses, 14-year-old Art was among the first to take the qualifying test. His first call sign was 9CXX, and later W0CXX. When his father saw that his son's interest in radio was likely to result in legitimate business, Merle turned from agribusiness and weighed in, too. In 1924 when Art needed a $130 tube, his father put up the money.

Collins and the other members of the Collins Amateur Radio Society were especially interested in receiving and collecting 'QSL' cards confirming conversations with hams in far flung places. As the power and sophistication of Collins' rig increased, he began to get postcards from all over. Receiving postcards from Australia, Scotland, England, India, Chile and Guam was exciting and got Collins' name in the newspaper. When he was fifteen he established a stable radio link via Morse code with a German friend who had embarked on a research expedition to Greenland. The National Geographic Society couldn't reach their expedition, but Collins could. His homemade ham radio made him famous.

The Great Depression

By 1930 Collins had grown into a tall, quiet young man. He married Margaret Van Dyke of Cedar Rapids. Collins attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids, and then Amherst College in Massachusetts, but did not graduate, unless you include the countless honorary doctorates and other awards he received later. When he was 22 he started his company, Collins Radio, in his parents' basement. It was 1931 and the Great Depression had just begun. Collins Farms fell on hard times and was sold for a pittance. By 1933, however, Collins was ready to incorporate. Collins had found some orders for radio transmitters, eight employees and $29,000 in startup money. He rented a basement office in downtown Cedar Rapids and, breaking down the door on their first day in the new facility (he hadn't yet received a key), began manufacturing and selling radios in a box. His father handled the books.

Gradually Collins Radio began to thrive. Collins placed radios in police cars for the first time. Admirable Byrd set sail for Antarctica in 1934 with a Collins shortwave transceiver on board, allowing voice communications from the South Pole and making Art Collins famous all over again. In 1935 RCA sued for patent infringement, making him infamous. Quickly, in 1936, they buried the hatchet and Collins paid royalties. The Goodyear blimp "Enterprise" was installed with the first airborne radio.

World War II

Collins Radio patented a new technology called Autotune in 1938. The feature allowed radio-equipped military aircraft to maintain contact with one another, avoiding having their signals jammed. That feature came in more than handy during the second World War. Every American military aircraft and every ground station had at least one of the units. In 1945 Collins was appointed to the board of trustees of Coe College and Collins Radio grew large.

Collins research delved into many fields, some of them allied with radio. The firm built the first commercial 'atom-smasher' on Long Island. They bounced a radio signal off the moon. They equipped the first American manned space shots with their communications gear. They were the first to electronically transmit a photograph, and manufactured the first parabolic radio-telescope. Collins Radio equipment both transmitted and received Neal Armstrong's first words broadcast from the surface of the moon.

More Military Money

In 1951 Collins Radio began production of their landmark R-390 military receiver. Sixteen thousand units were made and sold at $2500 a pop. In 1954 an improved and slightly less expensive version replaced the R-390. As many as 54,000 of these were sold. Collins manufacturing facilities popped up all over and tens of thousands of people were employed. Cedar Rapids was owned. Art Collins worked hard and lived a modest good life, flying airplanes and fishing.

In 1961 amid wild stock pricing fluctuations Collins Radio opened a large new facility in Newport Beach, California. In 1958 Collins stock was $11. Two years later it was $72. In 1964 it sank back to $15. By 1968 it was over $100. Art Collins was not a money person. After the death of Merle Collins, meeting financial goals was difficult. But Collins made good stuff, and lots of it. In 1969 Ross Perot attempted a takeover. The acquisition was apparently averted when Honeywell tendered an offer, but that one fell through also.

The Changing of the Guard

In 1971 Collins Radio merged with Rockwell International with Art Collins as CEO of the amalgamated company. Apparently he didn't like it. In 1972 Collins quit and started a consultancy in Dallas, Texas, the new corporate home of his brainchild. Rockwell Collins plunged into semiconductor technology in a big way, providing the brain of virtually every G3 fax machine made for several years.

Today Rockwell Collins is once again independent of Rockwell International. They no longer make consumer-level devices, but they are busy. Sixty plants and 17,000 employees in 27 countries make commercial and military communications devices including in-flight entertainment systems, and generate US$3.4 billion in annual revenue.

Shortly after a stroke Arthur Collins died in Dallas, TX in February, 1987, leaving behind a wife, four grown children, and a large pile of honors and awards. And Collins Advanced Projects Division continues the Collins innovations from which their fortunes have been derived.

Jim Rue writes about computers and conducts training and field service in Orange County, CA. He can be reached at Jim [at] NFWriter [dot] com.