[Amps] What's the story on these companies?

[Jim Brown]

On Tue, 11 May 2010 08:34:56 -0400, Sam Carpenter wrote:

>I had a customer who was with HCJB Shortwave in Equator. If I remember
>right, they had a transmitter manufacturing business as a result of them
>building their own transmitters. 

That company was related to Crown, the company that first made tape recorders 
for missionaries, and later expanded into excellent audio power amps. The 
factory was in Elkhart, IN. I've been both a customer and salesman of their 
products. An excellent company, quite well run. The press release in the link 
below is a bit on the puffy side, but not terribly far from the facts. 

http://www.crownaudio.com/gen_htm/press/pr78.htm

Crown was purchased by Harman industries 10 years ago. Harman also owns JBL 
Pro and a number of other audio companies. I don't know the fate of the 
transmitter operation. My impression was always that the transmitter, HCJB, 
and radio operations were Clarence's real love, and I've always believed that 
he supported them financially with the profits from the audio biz. I've 
always heard that he was the inventor of the cubical quad, and the link below 
seems to confirm that. 

http://www.antennex.com/preview/Jan501/quad1.htm

73,

Jim Brown K9YC