[Collins] mcn numbers

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Tue, 2008-01-01 at 12:52 -0800, Glen Zook wrote:
> Remember that Art insisted that every little
> modification that he came up with had to be put in
> every radio before it shipped to the customer. 
> Unfortunately, when he got involved basically nothing
> ever got shipped because he was always making changes
> and, of course, the customer never paid anything.

That must have been something new after I left at the end of August
1966. I didn't detect he made any changes to the 821A-1 and I was in
charge of the final testing and shipping. It was a project a bit large
to keep from his sight, taking up about 1000 square feet of floor space
with a 13' ceiling for the inside part. And needing its own substation
for primary power. And Art had sold it for the purchase parts price to
buy his way into a new power level. The customer wanted manual tuning in
20 minutes, they got automatic tuning in 20 seconds or less for less
money so one transmitter could do the frequency agile tasks that
otherwise took two transmitters if the customer (VOA) could stand 10
seconds (average) of dead air for the frequency change. It did come with
a high operating cost of short lives for the vacuum variables because of
bellows heating and welding that lead to bad leaks.

While he didn't come up with changes, he did insist on passing on most
design details before they were implemented. And when sales sold a few
more to Australia, he insisted on a new output network and building in a
computer for control and automated diagnostics to the point that the
821A-1 and 821A-2 shared only the PA tubes, the modulator tubes, the RF
driver tube and maybe the RF driver tube socket. What a way to go after
giving away the 821A-1 engineering and production costs. We took a year
longer than the 821A-1 bid and that contract had a significant delivery
penalty, even though VOA stored the transmitters for long enough we were
worried about all the electrolytic capacitors before they installed them
and put them to work. As I recall VOA didn't have the finances for the
buildings after spending only a million on 9 transmitters (250 KW out
each). I never did learn the outcome of the contract negotiations. Part
of our points were that we had to teach Eimac and Jennings how to make
(and ship) these high power parts and that benefited VOA in their other
high power transmitters. We did ship many a PA tube and vacuum variable
back to their factories, sometimes with an OOPS sticker...
> 
> At least here in the Richardson plant every department
> had a "project" just for Art's attention.  There was
> never any intention of shipping anything having to do
> with the project but by getting Art interested then
> production could continue on the "real" radios and
> they could be shipped.  Then the customer would pay
> the bill and accounting was happy.

Four years after I left I dropped in for a visit and they had a VLF high
power linear that synthesized the PA drive wave form to get high
efficiency, but had no prospects for selling any. That might have been a
keep Art (and the department) busy project. Several had already left and
more than one asked where I'd found work because they couldn't see the
high power transmitter department lasting long. And in a few years it
was sold to Continental.
> 
> Building 401 was the main engineering building here in
> Richardson.  Building 402 was where Process Division
> (which I was with) had the circuit board assembly
> line, photographic shop, and on the mezzanine most of
> the management although Bill Shockley (one of the 2
> Division Directors that we had) was over in Building
> 401.
> 
I think I worked in building 409, had the warehouse on the south end,
microwave in the middle and we took over the north end and much of the
west face. But I could be wrong, I left bridges in the personnel
department charred when I left on a 1 year leave of absence which when I
asked for extension, they never responded, not even for military duty.
Today I doubt I could find the place, hams in Allen and McKinney can't
identify the place I lived there from my descriptions of how it was in
1966. Allen has overgrown the hills and valleys for miles around. Can't
walk across it anymore.

> Glen, K9STH
> 
> 

-- 
73, Jerry, K0CQ, Technical Advisor to the CRA
All content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer