[Collins] Collins 62S-1 Transverter Downconversion Gain??

[Glen Zook]

During the first half of 1967 the KWM-3 was in the design stage.  Basically, it was to be a modification of the 718-T with the coverage expanded down to 1.8 MHz to cover the 160 meter band.  Also, the frequency "stepping" was to be changed from 100 Hz to 10 Hz.  

The Industrial Design group, headed by Eric Tedley, was placed in the Process Division and his group was charged with coming up with a new cabinet design for the KWM-3.  The first week that I worked for Collins Radio (having just graduated from Georgia Tech) three potential cabinet designs were presented to Art.  This meeting was in Building 401 on the Richardson Collins Radio Company campus.  I attended that meeting and it was the first time that I personally met Art Collins.  This was in April of 1967.

There were three different cabinet designs presented including one with a faux wood grain finish.  Art made a few notes and went back to Building 407 (a.k.a. "Camelot" because it was "King Arthur's palace").  After that meeting nothing more was heard around Process Division (Harry Passman's division) about the KWM-3.  Eventually the KWM-3 "faded into the woodwork" and nothing more was said about it.

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


--- On Tue, 9/21/10, Dr. Gerald N. Johnson <geraldj at weather.net> wrote:

From: Dr. Gerald N. Johnson <geraldj at weather.net>

Art liked it that the gear was a luxury item. He was not pleased that the S-line was affordable though it sold well. He wanted ham gear to again be like the gold dust twins, affordable only by the elite. In early 1964 before my job moved to Richardson, I knew of a new transceiver design with a 5894 PA, but it didn't get beyond drawings. I don't think a prototype was built. The concept Art was pushing was a closet radio controlled through a remote cable, he'd have liked Ethernet remote controlled radios on the market today. And he wanted it to cost ten times the price of a 75S-3B. I don't know that concept got beyond working papers, because the next ham gear to appear was the KWM-380 several years later.