Central Electronics Est. 1950 , closed 1962 | USA

Central Electronics (CE) was founded by Wes Schum (W9DYV) and started building amateur radio equipment in the 1950's. Up to that time AM was the usual mode of operation. CE is generally credited with giving the initial push that got amateur single-sideband off the workbench and into the ham shack. Their first product, the Central Electronics 10-A used the hetrodyne scheme whereby the single-sideband signal was first generated at 9MHz and later mixed, using either crystals or an external VFO, to the desired output frequency.

CE's Central Electronics 100V and Central Electronics 200V are regarded as being among the highest quality transmitters history has produced. Many survive to this day.

Central Electronics suddenly, and unexpectedly, deactivated in 1962.