For me this site – and my contribution to it – is a way of remembering and commemorating GELOSO, also affectionately called by its pseudonym “nota casa” [well-known business], a term first used by the company’s founder, Ing. Giovanni Geloso, whom I had the honour to know personally.
He was a man with rare human, scientific and artistic qualities who – with the aid of outstanding associates – succeeded in enhancing the prestige of Italian industry worldwide.
The collection of GELOSO devices I have put together is the result of an almost life-long search – over more than forty years – embarked on almost by chance.
The first item I recall was a gift: a small G.257 tape-recorder, the famous Gelosino, which I still guard jealously (let’s not forget that “way back then”, a tape-recorder was not something many could afford, let alone a boy).
Years passed and my work brought me to Milan, where I formed a family of my own and took up a job as a radio/TV repair technician, dealing particularly with Geloso products. I began to have direct dealings with the parent company, and I got to know Giovanni Geloso himself as well as many of his collaborators: in particular, Pippo Fontana (I1AY) and Narciso Pagan (I1FI) who were in charge of the transmitter-receivers sector, as well as being radio hams and highly talented designers.
I took the name SWL-13030 and started listening in on amateur radio bands, first with the great G.209 and later with the more modern G.214.
Meanwhile Giovanni Geloso had died and the company’s position became shaky; aggressive foreign competition eventually led to its inevitable demise and final closure.
I continued along my chosen professional path and joined the German company, Siemens, as a service technician for electromedical equipment.In Siemens I unexpectedly met colleagues who had worked for Geloso; among them was Franco Perna, a former Geloso design engineer who – like me – was also an addicted collector of old radios and the like.
Over the years, at trade fairs, exhibitions and in amateur radio circles, I made the acquaintance ofother enthusiasts, including Giammario Garello, a young graduate of the Milan Politecnico, who was constantly searching for low frequency devices, especially valve amplifiers.
My collection has continued to grow and now consists of many items.
In my spare time I work on what I have picked up as “scrap” until these pieces are like new again, in line with their rating characteristics, with the objective of completing series of recorders, microphones, transmitter-receivers etc.
When exhibitions are organized locally I enjoy taking along my collection and a lot of people say nice things about it. Admittedly I live in the hope of unearthing some rare piece or some seemingly never-to-be-found part. But my search – like that of any other passionate collector – can still trigger emotions as strong as all those years ago, when I was given my first “Gelosino”…
And this search continues..
Thanks to Silvia Bonanomi for the translation.