Mention Atlas Radio and immediately you think of Herb Johnson who also was the creative genius behind Swan Engineering later Swan Radio.
Atlas 180
I often wondered if the name Atlas was chosen because of the comic books ads that featured Charles Atlas. Charlie who decried that he was a puny kid used his exercise regimen to become a body builder. He is quoted as saying give me a place to stand and I can lift the world. The Atlas Radio logo appears to have a world globe cleverly hidden in the graphic.
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I was an early purchaser of the Atlas 180 and installed it in my Chevy Vega. My one-way trip to work using the California freeways was about 30 minutes so enough time for a few QSO's.
One of my best ever QSO's was with a friend and fellow employee of Douglas Aircraft. My friend Dan was a pilot and for about a 2-year period was a FAA designee qualifying Japanese Pilots (JAL) to fly the DC-10. He would crank up the Collins 618T on board the DC-10 during a check flight over Japan and would look for me on my way to work. Now this was like Applebee's: Some really good eating in the neighborhood.
While its specs touted SSB and CW -- the CW was ok for a rare QSO, but the manual switch over would render it useless in a contest. The Atlas 180 tuned 160 through 20M. All-important a linear dial scale and a reasonably stable analog VFO. For operation on various bands the VFO was shifted in Frequency with no crystal mixing. The IF was at 5 MHz.
The Atlas 180 circuitry was unique having some roots back to a military radio the RT505. Les Earnshaw ex ZL1AAX had a hand in the design of both the RT505 and the Atlas 180. I say unique as there is no RF amplifier stage to be subjected to overload.
Like many in our hobby I got an itch to upgrade to the Atlas 210X (5 Bands) and away went the Atlas 180. That was a mistake! A couple of years ago I found this unit on eBay for $100.
It was a compact radio and I think all versions 180, 215, 210 and 210X had a run of over 14000 units. Icom and Yaesu essentially put Atlas out of business with radios costing the same or less but with 10X the features.
At one time I had a very nice two-hour conversation with Herb Johnson, and he shared that the Japanese Manufacturers were selling (dumping more like it) radios on the market a cost less than just the parts of an Atlas Radio. That will put you out of business real quick.
I think it sounds pretty good! TYGNYB.
73's
Pete N6QW