[Collins] Re KWM2A V13

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On 2/16/2012 10:54 AM, Jim Whartenby wrote:
> Interesting observations by Rick.  Just goes to show that a thorough visual
> inspection is always in order.
>
> A few questions for those in the know:
> Just how was the assembly line at Collins organized?

According to the Anamosa Chapter in KK5IM's book, there were several 
(mostly women, if not all) steps in assembly, each being a specialist. 
Progressive mechanical and electrical assembly. He shows a picture of 
one gal installing band switches, another wiring a turret in a KWM-2. In 
that picture unwired turrets appear to already have been mounted but 
there are a bunch of flying wires from the harness. It had been SOP 
(from WW2 production line pictures I've seen) to have built the wiring 
harness on a plywood plank, and lace it, then install it in the radio. I 
recall from some reference that the first S-line had problems because 
the industrial engineer added several inches to each harness wire to 
make it easier to install and that added wire was enough to cause 
instability. And that the radios worked when the engineers in Cedar 
Rapids shortened those wires. It would have made much sense when 
possible to partly populate turrets before bolting them in place. I 
don't know they did that. I'd have expected that to have been a major 
benefit of the turrets. Had I been involved, I'd have considered moving 
circuits to small printed circuit boards (like the rectifiers in the 
30L-1) for more out of radio modular assembly.

In the servo section of the diagnostic panel or the 821A-1, circuits 
repeated 9 times so exact a repeat that I drew an 8-1/2 x 11 diagram of 
one section on velum and then had it copied on velum and I assembled 
that part of the schematic with scotch tape. With 81 copies of that 
circuit it probably would have been worth making a printed circuit if it 
didn't include a 4 pole relay that couldn't be in a socket and a 3 pole 
double pole pushbutton that also had to be soldered because of the low 
level signals. So I made them hand wire all 81 copies.Both the switch 
and the relay had precious metal contacts for the low level signals.

Its fairly certain that a conscientious gal would have self inspected 
just to not get negative feed back from the final inspector. KK5IM's 
book shows a separate inspection station after the operation test 
station. I think that final inspector did the witness striping. The 
photo caption in KK5IM's book includes, "Collins inspectors were 
powerful and demanding people." I know the inspectors where I was in 
Cedar Rapids were that. They were and independent group and we didn't 
ship prototypes to Texas until they passed inspection (and my first 
soldering didn't always when I helped the lab tech finish up quick) and 
they often came to broadcast directly from inspecting Appollo flight 
equipment. Picky? Extremely!!!! Broadcast and Appllo were inspected by 
the same rules.

> One did the mechanical assembly, soldering and then did a self inspection?
> Another did the final inspection?
> Who then applied the witness stripe to show that the solder joint was inspected?
>
> It would be interesting to know if the unsoldered joint  had a witness stripe.

Definitely. Though I've seen lugs thoroughly filled and it can happen 
that solder didn't penetrate the entire lump. And though not have been 
seen by a visual or tug inspection, only shows up decades later.
>
> Was the tube socket turret populated and mated to the wiring harness before it
> was integrated into the chassis?  Things were so tight in the 51S-1 when I
> replaced capacitors, I found it difficult to mount components and solder them
> without causing some minor damage to other wires and components close by.

Pilot line girls working for me on 821A-1 components in Texas sometimes 
walked over to the warehouse in the same building and put teflon 
insulated wire on my project charges so they didn't have to be so 
careful with the soldering iron around the harness. On those we didn't 
make a harness separately, just tied the harness after wiring with 
individual color coded wires. I got the tasks of training new pilot line 
girls who had just gone to the pilot line from production. In production 
there were detailed instructions step by step, but pilot line worked 
from the original engineering drawings and they had to learn. One 
sequence just got pair trained in a week and the pilot line supervisor 
sent another pair so I had to train them again. When that heppened the 
third time I went to my (temporary boss) and complained that I hired on 
to design, not to train pilot line girls. He agreed and in his fashion 
(more than a little obnoxious in all contacts) made a phone call and I 
had that pair until the project was completed.  And at least one of 
those pilot line gals got me called into his office. I tended to avoid 
rush minutes by being ten minutes late each morning. I didn't go out for 
lunch and didn't leave on time, but one morning a pilot line gal was 
loafing and he noticed, asked her and she said didn't have anything to 
do until I arrived. Fact was she had materials and drawings for at least 
a week of work that she had done before. She was on the time clock, I 
was not, she was jealous. In Texas all those on the time clock were 
lined up at the time clock several minutes before quitting time with the 
front one's time card inserted halfway into the time clock. So when it 
clicked 5 all those on the time clock were punched out and out the door 
in seconds. But they had quit work at least as early as I was late. I 
don't recall there being inspectors in the transmitter lab in Texas at 
all. We installed the modules and made sure the radio worked as planned. 
The boxes I was building were the D/A boxes that preset the servos and 
ran the automatic tuning sequence from preset to full power with full 
modulation. Vacuum capacitors fried if not preset properly. At $550 
each, an expensive test set! I don't remember any copies of the D/A 
caused any problems so the gals wired them correctly.

It was a little hard to take that leave and live on savings while doing 
graduate work, but I didn't miss pilot line girls or that boss. That was 
a one year leave of absence, haven't been back since. At one year I 
wrote asking extension to complete MSEE, no answer. 3 months later I 
wrote asking change to military leave having been drafted and inducted. 
No answer. I must have thoroughly charred the bridges in my departure 
interview in HR.
>
> As I replaced components in the 51S-1, I also found broken ground connections on
> at least two coax cable shields.  I don't remember finding any unsoldered
> joints.
> Jim
>
>
73, Jerry, K0CQ, Technical Adviser to the Collins Radio Association.