Signal One History

My first encounter with Signal One occurred in early 1970.  The owner of KRIS-TV was T. Frank Smith, Sr., W5VA, and he owned three CX7s.  The early boxes frankly didn't work all that well.  As an engineer at the television station one of my tasks was to keep these new and exotic radios on the air for "Big Frank".  After he passed away in 1972 his widow gave me one of those CX7s.  I don't know what ever happened to the other two.  I still have CX7 serial number 00234 and I use it frequently.

Mr. Smith purchased the radios from Bob Douglas, W5GEL.  Bob owned Douglas Electronics here in Corpus Christi and he and Mr. Smith were close friends.  I spent many hours in the shop at Douglas Electronics working on Signal Ones with Bob.  He owned one as well and had sold quite a few to amateurs in the Corpus Christi area. 

I got my second CX7 in February 2005 when I bought my second Alpha 77.  The person I bought the 77 from said he had a CX7 in the garage and didn't know what he was going to do with it.  I asked him to "throw it in" with the amp and he did.  It only needed a few repairs and is now on the air.

As with so much of the early equipment we really didn't  know how important it was to become years down the road.  Today I look back on that era and wish I had tried to learn even more and to have collected a lot more radios than I did.

In the mid 80's I took my antennas down due to a threatening hurricane.  I did not put any back up for nearly 15 years.  I was not active during that time and did not know about the increasing interest in boatanchors.  When I did get back on the air in the late 90's things had really changed.  I started acquiring some vintage gear and that included a second CX7.  Now I have seven Signal Ones.  The advent of the internet also allowed collectors with similar interested to quickly communicate with each other.  If it weren't for the internet I would not have as many Signal Ones as I do nor would I be able to maintain the Registry of Existing Signal Ones.

This is a brief summary of my early experience with Signal Ones.  I find the Signal Ones to be the most intriguing radios ever built.  Technically they were years ahead of their time.  Some of the features incorporated in these radios are still incredible even by today's standards.  The history of Signal Ones is truly incredible as well, from the early days in Florida as a subsidiary of NCR to the last days in Arizona. 

In these pages I will share what I have learned about Signal One over the years and I will include stories and emails from others who have a knowledge of this story as well.  It will truly be a work in progress.  If you have anything to contribute or have knowledge that something I have included here is wrong or incomplete I welcome your input.  Too many of the people who truly knew the intimate details of this saga have passed away or are unwilling to talk about it.  A few people I have talked to who were involved in the early days even refer to the radios as "Signal NONE".  Many unfulfilled dreams in the beginning and unfortunate tales of hams getting screwed out of large sums of money in the end, never to see their IC-781 returned to them.  Whether or not all of this is true true it makes for a helluva story.

Let's start off with a very interesting document prepared by Doc Sheller in February, 2006. 

I have been reading the old archives, and noticed a lot of interest in the history of SIGNAL ONE. For what its worth, I will go thru my entire history with
S/O since 1969.

I believe the first time I saw a S/O was at Dayton in 1969. It looked really neat, but I had an 'S' line,  so I was set. Later that year, John , WB8AKU,
now W8JG , ordered a CX7. I am not sure when it arrived, but I think it was during the winter of 69/70. All the hams and DXers wanted to try it out,  It was neat,
but it spent more time in transit back and forth to FL, than it did on his desk. Later that year [1970] I ordered one for myself, after being assured by the
factory that all the problems were fixed. I REALLY liked the radio, but God it was a pain to keep running. Early in 71, I bought a 2nd CX7, 
this way I could have one in my shack while repairing the other. Some time in 71, my friend John bought a PA70V from Dick Ehrhorn W4ETO.
[ for those who don't remember, the PA70V was a 8220;vapor 8221; [water] cooled amplifier that had true QSK].  Dick was one of the people who
designed the S/O. He left S/O, which I believe was a division of NCR.

With Dick having left S/O in Jan 1971 to form ETO INC. , the outlook for S/O looked bleak. I have been told that NCR saw the S/O fiasco as a
black hole of money, and began action to divest itself of S/O. I have no idea of how many CX7's came out of FL , but they never seemed to get
any better,  most buyers seem to have multiple problems. The reputation of S/O was headed for the basement. I sold my 2 CX7's in mid 1971
[sold is not quite accurate, gave away is more factual ]. Not much was heard from S/O till somewhere in mid 1972. All registered owners of CX7's,
got a letter from a fellow named Frank Quevas ,W6AOA. He was a big time 20M DXER from southern California,  and was loud,  { a pair of 4-1000's ],
both on the air and in person. I am not sure of Frank's title, but he was the front man for the Signal One Division of CMI.

When you read Frank's letter, you were convinced that the "new" CX7A would be better than "sex drugs and rock and roll". The hype and
promises were unbelievable. Milspec parts, 100 hour burn in,  everything redesigned. I talked to Frank [W6AOA] on the air and the phone many
times,  He was a salesman of the first order. Being a slow learner, I stepped up to the plate and bought one. I thought the "stick on CX7A
label " over the CX7 label was a nice touch. To be honest, I only had a few failures with the CX7A,but looking inside the radio revealed a basic CX7.

During 1972, Dick Ehrhorn [Mr. ALPHA] and I became good friends,  He and his wife would come to Ohio for me to do their dental work,  I made a
few trips to FL visiting the original ETO plant in Brooksville. Dick and I made arrangements to meet in Las Vegas in Jan 73 for the Ham Convention.

I must digress somewhat to lay the foundation for the next part of the story. Some of you will remember K2IXP, Larry Pace. A great operator who
traveled around the world on what appeared to be a continuous DX-expedition. His QSL card said "Around the world with K2IXP". Larry had left a
pretty good engineering job at [ I think] IBM. It turns out that after returning from his world travels, Larry was hired as the chief engineer at S/O in
Gardena, CA. Because of my purchase of a CX7A, Larry and I got to be pretty friendly. When he found out that I was coming to Las Vegas in Jan 73 [or 74],
he said he would come to Vegas and drive my wife and I back to stay at his place in Gardena, CA. He said it would be a great opportunity to meet
some of the SO CAL DXERS and to spend some time at the S/O plant,  It really sounded like a great plan to me.

Larry and his wife picked us up in Vegas and we drove on to CA. The next day he took me to the the HQ's of Signal One,  WOW,  There were CX7's
stacked to the ceiling that had been returned for repair , upgrade or modification. A realistic number would be 20-25. Larry said they had no
money from CMI to do the work,  Production was on about 3 20 ft tables, with nothing happening. The stock room had almost bare shelves. About
that time Frank, W6AOA came in to welcome me and assure me that things were a little disorganized now, but everything was getting better. I
remember the phone ringing a lot and the secretary either not answering or telling the caller no one was available. It was little scary and quite disappointing.

I want to set one thing straight. Larry Pace was, and is,  a straight shooter. He was an employee,  really had no authority to do much. It was
obvious to me the company was being run into the ground,  I had heard rumors that S/O was not paying their suppliers, and that they had never
paid NCR in FL in full for the S/O name and assets. Another shock that day was seeing a "mock up" of the S/O separate receiver and transmitter.
These were just the cabinet and front panel,  They NEVER had any electronics in side. I think both CQ and HAM RADIO had a couple of small
ads with picture of these "coming attractions'. NONE were ever produced.

After recovering from the shock at S/O, Larry said lets go to where all the surplus stores are. There are a lot of neat surplus outlets in CA.
About the 3rd store we went into, I made a startling discovery. In one bin, I found the following parts for a CX7 S/O's: PTO's,, BE heat sinks,
pushbutton assemblies and meters. I pointed these out to Larry and he said "I'll tell you on the way home." It seems some of the employees
hired by CMI for S/O were not getting paid, so they "liberated" parts and sold them to the surplus stores. After this day of surprises, Larry and I had a long talk.
He said the company was dying a horrible death, and that a lot of people were getting screwed. He was planning on leaving as soon as he had another
job. I asked him about my CX7A and he said." dump it". As soon as I got back to Ohio, that is exactly what I did. I am not sure how much longer
CMI, S/O lasted,  but it wasn't very long. On the air and at hamfests, people talked about all the hams that got screwed. The bottom line is that the S/O in CA
was a big joke. All it really did was further tarnish the Signal One name. Larry Pace is now K7DD in AZ. A helluva contester and homebrewer, he also does
some S/O repairs,  Still a great guy who got caught up in some corporate wet dream.

The next I heard about S/O was in 74-75,  Don Payne from Payne Radio in TN was pushing a revival of S/O. They were looking for investors to
restart the company in NJ. I know some people who were investors, but their names will not be mentioned here. The word began to circulate,
that a new , very smart [ some described him as a genius.] engineer, was redesigning the radio from A-Z. This fellow was Don Rohers. I have never
heard any one question his engineering or design ability. He also had a great personality and was a real people person.

With a good deal of advertising and word of mouth, S/O began to ship radios. The new radio was a CX11,  which was an almost a total redesign
from the CX7 Many, many improvements were made. I don't know how many radio were made and shipped from NJ even Paul Kollar W8CXS
wasn't sure., but thinks the number of CX11's was about 11.

The move to AZ was in late 75 or early 76. Don redesigned and improved the radio again and out popped the CX11A. The parts were much better, 
Gold SMB connectors and MIL spec coax inside. Sockets for all solid state parts,  It seemed like things were going well for S/O and Don.

A very good friend of mine worked at S/O in AZ for about 4 years. His observation was that Don had 2 faults. He was a compulsive/obsessive
about making the world's BEST radio. He was constantly tinkering, modifying, redesigning. He was never satisfied. This led to his second problem. Because
he was TOTALLY focused on "the RADIO" he promised unrealistic things and never really paid attention the business ends of the company. The more he
got behind, the deeper he dug the hole,  but ALWAYS tinkering with the product.

Around 1981, Don was working on a new radio, the MILSPEC 1030. He wanted to compete with the Collins 380, which was a very expensive radio. He
never settled on a final design, but the radio was Quality. Some hams like it better than the CX11A, Some like the CX11A better,  Whichever is right , these
are two great radios. Some where in the 80's/early 90's, Don and S/O got a govt. contract with the US Marines. Also some where in the late 80's or early 90's, 
Don began work on another radio. It is my understanding that after a great deal of research, he decided to use an IC-781 platform and repackage it with the
Don Rohers touch. You could either buy the finished product from him,  or send him your IC781 and $8000 to have it turned into a 1030C.  I am not sure how
many guys sent him radios or money, but the whole program began to unravel in the late 90's. I spoke to Don in 1999.  At that time I had 2 IC781's, but was
moving from my 20 acre antenna farm, in Ohio, to 1.5 acres in the Upper Peninsula of MI. I ask Don flat out what would $8000 do for my IC 781's that had
been thru 1000's of hours of operation and contesting with out a failure. Don couldn't give an on point answer, but promised me that the improvements were
enormous. I have never had a chance to operate one of these "souped up" 781's, but would like to hear from anyone who has.

My last S/O I owned was a CX11A late model. My friend John W8JG [mentioned at the beginning] was getting rid of most of his ham gear. This was a MINT
radio with ALL the options, paper work and a speaker. I think I bought the CX11A in 89 or 90,  Like an idiot, I sold it to buy another 781, because the CX11A
was not computer compatible. 

I am now looking for another CX11A,  I hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane with Signal One. If any of you find a mistake or error in my
story, don't hesitate to bring it to my attention so we can correct it.

Thanks for reading:

Doc Sheller K8RR ex K8RZ, KN8Z, W8MZ, WA8ZDF, WN8ZCT

The Bitter End

Here are some emails and postings of experiences that amateur radio operators had with Don Roehr at the end.  Not a very happy ending.  In all my conversations and emails I have yet to find a single person who has anything good to say about the final days of Signal One.

Here is a post on EHAM PRODUCT REVIEWS by W2DAP.  Another terrible experience.

I genuinely wish I could report on how well (or not so well) my Signal One Mil-Spec 1030CI operates at this time but since I still do not have my radio, I must go way back to how it operated before being sent back for updates and mods at the suggestion of Don Roehrs of Signal One.

In December of 1996, I sent Signal One, my beautiful and now greatly missed IC-781 for modification to their Mil Spec unit. I paid $7900.00 for these services and in a few months, I received the radio as a Mil Spec 1030CI. That was some time in 1997. It didn't work particularly well and had several problems including a hypersensitive turndown circuit and some popping in the audio, particularly in the wide bandwidth position. There were also some intermittents. Later a colleague of Don’s, Jim, who along with Don Roehrs had originally delivered the radio to me personally, revealed to me that there were several problems with the radios in the 1030 iteration, many of which related to faulty connector strips. Don solicited me to return the radio and I did so in October of 1998 for repairs and mods.

It was shipped at my expense, to Signal One in Arizona with the promise to correct defects and perform some needed mods. Later there were requests to finance “upgrades.” In January 1999, Mr. Roehrs stated that he had come across some additional needs and circuit mods and requested a check for $1500.00 and I mailed a payment of $1,000.00. Later in a letter on 27 February the radio was promised on the 14th May of that year. In that very letter he stated, "Jim and I will deliver it personally." This never occurred and in August of that year he said he needed the $500.00 balance plus an additional $500.00 and I mailed him another check, this time for $1,000.00.

Signal One at this time worked in conjunction with an individual who was developing software work for the radio in another state along with Jim in VA who, I understood was designing hardware and boards. Jim, whom I found to be most pleasant and seemingly very sincere, told me that he helped Don Roehrs purely as a courtesy and to be a part of a great radio, and was very sorry for the lengthy delays I was experiencing. When my modified radio was first delivered in 1997, it was by Don and Jim who flew into my local airport with my Mil Spec 1030CI, using Jim's private single engine airplane, for that purpose. Anyway, Jim continually told me over the years that Don would soon finish my radio and it would have many improvements as well as fixes for existing issues. I am sure he genuinely is concerned and wants me to have my radio as soon as possible.

I exchanged many phone calls and a lot of email with Jim wherein we discussed Don's written and oral promises to me to make good my huge investment, both in my original radio the IC 781 plus a great deal of cash; I continued to expect the latest and “greatest” version of the 1030, the model E with DSP. I sincerely believed Jim when he told me he was designing new boards etc. and that Don would definitely fulfill his responsibilities and build the improved and innovative radios.

In July 2000, Don phoned advising that they needed to add new components and a special Lambda power supply and requested yet more money, this time $1326.00. I asked him then, "Will that complete the project and updates?" He promised it would, so I sent that payment. Soon afterward his correspondence ended. I was later told that there remain, “Several brand new Lambda Supplies in the box.” The Lambda supply was to power the requirements for what was to be the “ultimate” radio, one with an onboard Sony computer.

It has been more than a year if I recall correctly, since Don finally did phone me after writing a letter promising the radio in "just a few months." I had so many hopes and dreams for this radio. I truly had envisioned having this state-of-the-art masterpiece of custom engineering on the air in a reasonable period of time and to be able to report on its performance to fellow hams worldwide.

Now we are in early 2005, more than six years since the radio was sent back to Signal One. All I can ask is where is my radio and my money? I want my My Mil Spec 1030CI or E with DSP.

Signal One once had a website; they advertised in QST too. I believed in the company and trusted their advertising and representations.

I am not generally a gullible person but I got caught up in this and just continued to pay thousands in the hope to finally get it right and now I am dismayed to see that with the value of the original radio and cash paid, my investment exceeds $17,000 and I have no radio, not even my original Icom 781. If I were rating that I would have given it a 5 at the time!

So I will have to rate the first Mil Spec 1030 CI by Signal One, at least from my brief experiences with it, at a 2. Now, with no radio, I cannot up or downgrade this report. If and when I do receive my radio I will post a review and hope that the once proud name of Signal One will shine brightly among those historically stellar pieces of equipment that are part of our hobby; nothing would make me happier than to follow this review up with a rating of a 5!

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Created: June 12, 2006. Last Updated: December 14, 2006
© Copyright 2007, PakRatz, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA