[Boatanchors] Collins 30S-1 vs. AM-4783/GRC-159(V)

[W4AWM at aol.com]

I have one that I broke out of the original shipping case on the runway at  
AAFB. It was the only way I could get it in my car.  I was SMD then and  
gave it to one of my long haul traffic stations who used it for years trouble  
free.  All went well until one night when his XYL was sitting in the shack  
while he was handling traffic.  Something arced over with a loud  BANG!  
After peeling herself off the ceiling, his XYL said the amp had to  go so I 
got it back. Funny thing is that nobody is sure that the arc was in the  amp 
and I have never found any evidence of an arc in the PS nor the RF  section.  
It still works fine.  I put the Collins soft start mod in it  and plan one 
day to do the screen mod. It is a great amp and I have had no  problems with 
it. I don't think there is any real difference between the  military and 
civilian models.
 
OTOH, the real disaster, even with trained ops, was the KWS-1. I worked as  
a backup op for a year at the MARS Station at SAC HQ at OFFUTT AFB. They 
had  three KWS-1s and there was always a problem with one or more of them.  
That  was back in the days when SAC was converting to SSB in all their 
military  communications and Gen. Lemay had several Collins tech reps on base 24/7. 
Seems  like one of them was always at the MARS Station working on the 
KWS-1s.
 
I have a KWS-1 here that was a "SAC Big Talker." I happened upon it quite  
by accident and the price was right so I bought it from a restorer in  NJ 
who was kind enough to deliver it. I bought a restored 75A-4 and  speaker from 
W3HM and had another 240V line pulled into the shack. Shame on  me.....I 
have never fired up either unit.  So many rigs, so little  time!
 
73,
 
  John,  W4AWM
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 3/17/2014 4:58:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
w5jo at brightok.net writes:

I had  one years back and I could not find any difference at all.  It had  
received good care and did not have any problems, but as Bob says inspect  
it 
carefully.  I have seen the choke in the HV power supply of those  things 
give trouble.

Jim
W5JO

-----Original Message-----  

Pete,

These were also used in MARS Stations.

They are  indeed identical, as far as I could tell.

The MARS operators were very  ignorant as to how to operate the station
equipment.

Truly NOT there  fault.  They were NEVER trained for what they were
operating.

I  watched a couple simply lock everything in TUNE and "indeed" tune  for
MAXIMUM SMOKE.

Not an uncommon situation, they managed to get  JUST that.

Check it over carefully.  *IF* it was not used by MARS  enlisted
personnel, it would be very likely operated  CORRECTLY!

Regards,
Bob - N0DGN



On 3/17/2014 4:33 PM,  Pete Lancashire wrote:
> I've been offered the AN/GRC-159 version of the  30S-1
>
> Other then the ID tag above the meter switch, is there  anything different
> between one and its 'civilian' cousin  ?
>
>  -pete


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