The Pre War Years

This Prewar Years Archives section here will always be a work in progress (as opposed to “Under Construction”). The quantity of each piece of equipment produced was small – in some cases you could count them on one hand. We also know that a lot of the equipment manufactured by Art Collins in the early days got cannibalized for parts and included in higher performance rigs (Home Brewing was alive and well then) so the number of surviving examples of prewar Collins Radio Company equipment is very low. In addition, those that do survive do not change owners very often because they are so coveted. They are thus somewhat invisible.

This section of our website is going to be dedicated to capturing the pictures and information about these really beautiful older transmitters and associated support gear. Sources of information and good pictures are few. The eventual goal here is to get at least one picture and some descriptive text on each and every model made by Collins prior to the war years. As such, we are hoping that owners of these rare pieces will contribute high resolution current pictures or any other source material that they have.

Most of our membership naturally focuses on the newer gear (post war) and pieces that can be found and collected more readily. This is understandable, but – in fact – remembering that our objective is to preserve not only the equipment but the information, schematics, manuals and literature associated with Collins Radio equipment, we want to focus here on capturing what information is left on these rare pieces and getting it organized in one consistent archive where it can be enjoyed and used in research.

We have been very fortunate to obtain some really excellent paperwork that helps us understand the very early days at Collins.

Bulletins: Art Collins, from the beginning – and offered in his first ads (information for 25 cents) – would send out product and technical information in a prepared format. He called these “Bulletins”. They are a primitive combination of a catalog and applications or specifications notes. There were five of these bulletins offered between 1932 and 1935. How long Art continued to send the last of these to customers is not known.

These bulletins, in good condition, are extremely rare and give us great insight into what Art was pushing and the pricing and strategy he was using as he got his business started and it evolved.

We are indebted to Rod Perala, W5CZ, and to Jim Stitzinger and “Books for Libraries”, WA3CEX for donating their material and their time to the scanning and archiving process that resulted in obtaining the material that we have here on these Bulletins. We also thank Jim for his discussions and factual contributions that helped date this material. The material presented below constitutes probably the single best source for accurate copies of these Bulletins and amounts to almost 90 pages of “Gold Mine” information on the products of the 30s at the Collins Transmitters and Collins Radio Company.

Date of Issue:
Bulletin 100, Bulletin 101 and Bulletin 105 were written first between March and June of 1932 even before the company became “Collins Radio”. They continued to evolve and be issued for some time period after that. Bulletin 105 has been seen with material dating to March of 1935 and including references to the 4A (circa 1933) and the 30FX. Bulletin 105 was often found folded in “three folds” indicating it had been mailed in a letter envelope later to customers who already had Bulletin 100 and 101. Bulletin 100 and 101 were often mailed together in a large envelope and two-hole punched for putting in a notebook.

Bulletin 200 seems to date from September 1934 and is a compilation of advertising material written for the bulletin combined with copies of the early Signal Magazine and advertisements.

Bulletin 200A was printed between about June and August of 1935 and is also a compilation of original material and copies of ads and other past printings.

The following links will take you to the various bulletins and pages that have been scanned and archived here. Since the copies are presented here in very high resolution, they have been lightly watermarked to prevent reproduction and subsequent illegal sale. These watermarked images are copyright 2013 protected and the property of the Collins Collectors Associations. They are to be used for personal research and display only and may not be reproduced, uploaded to other sites, or sold for any purpose. After going to these Bulletin Links, all pages will be available in high resolution format. Membership in the CCA allows you to copy these images.

Bulletin 100   (Circa 1932)
Bulletin 101   (Circa 1932)
Bulletin 105   (Circa March 1935)
Bulletin 200   (Circa September 1934)
Bulletin 200A (Circa Summer 1935)

If, after looking at these images, you feel that you have additional material that is related, or from a different date range, please contact one of the current officers if you would like to donate scans of this material to our growing efforts here to preserve this valuable resource.