[Collins] Collins military S line

Mon Jul 7 12:25:59 EDT 2014

During the early months of Operation Desert Shield, the latest and greatest Harris SSB transceivers were failing due to the Van der Graf effect of the desert sand blowing across the wire antennas.  Basically, the receiver "front end" transistors were being destroyed.

"Someone" remembered that there was still a stock of KWM-2A transceivers in a warehouse.  Those transceivers were flown to Saudi Arabia and put in operation for tactical operations until the Harris transceivers were repaired and modified to prevent the damage from the sand.  I understand that a couple of retired Collins employees were "drafted" to make sure the KWM-2As were operating correctly.

As for the Eldico T-102 and R-104:  I do have a complete set of these S-Line "clones" including power supply and station monitor.  The performance is basically the same as my 32S-1 and 75S-1 equipment.  But, the PTO tuning is not as smooth as the Collins and the tuning knob is way too small for easy operation.

The Eldico equipment can easily be seen in the 2nd, and 3rd, photographs at:

http://k9sth.com/uploads/Equipment_at_K9STH-9_January_2013.pdf

Glen, K9STH

On Monday, July 7, 2014 10:39 AM, "antqradio at sbcglobal.net" <antqradio at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

I was stationed both in the Philippines and in Germany while in the Air Force as a Ground Radio Tech between 1968 and 1972.  The only use by the U.S. Air Force for the S-Line and the KWM-2 & 2A, that I saw, was in MARS.  IIRC, the standard MARS setup was one S-Line, one or two KWM-2A's, one 30S-1 and at least one 30L-1.  The KWM-2 was the preferred radio by the operators, along with the 30S-1 linear amplifier.  The S-Line and an Eldico clone I later saw in Germany, although both were operational, were hardly ever used.

The radio shop at Mactan was a shared shop by both the USAF and the Philippine Air Force (PAF).  PAF had a KWM-2 that they used in deployment as a tactical radio along with a 30L-1 amplifier with the suitcases for transport, the tape antenna and the auxiliary crystal pack.  They used it when deployed to Mindanao in early 1970 while I was stationed at Mactan.  It seems that there was at that time (and probably still is) a gorilla war going on between different political factions on Mindanao.   

When I was later stationed at Zweibruken AB in Germany, I worked on getting a TRC-89 Van operational which had two KWT-6's, one 50E-6, one R-390A, two GRC-27 UHF transmitter-receiver systems and two Collins single channel VHF transmitter-receiver systems.  Needless to say, the TRC-89 had it's own air conditioning!  We never used VHF in Germany but everything else was used by the Comm Center as Tactical Radios.

When I was in radio school at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, all of the above radios were in the "Sets" portion of the Ground Radio course except for the S-Line / KWM-2 and the Collins VHF radios.  Those I picked up through on-the-job training.
Jim

________________________________
From: Bill Riches <bill.riches at verizon.net>
To: 'L Ritta' <vk5abc at adam.com.au>; Collins at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Monday, July 7, 2014 6:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Collins] Collins military S  line

One use was in the European area - Germany, Great Britain, Ethiopia, Turkey,
Greece, Africa and other locations for Ground to Ground phone patches.  I
worked in a ground radio site in Athens Greece in the 60's repairing a bunch
of s-line and KWT-6 rigs.  

73,

Bill, WA2DVU

-----Original Message-----
From: Collins [mailto:collins-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of L Ritta
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 1:31 AM
To: Collins at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Collins] Collins military S line

Hello All

I have an interesting question about the Collins S line and it's use in the
US military.
I understand it was used for Mars, but was it used in combat for tactical
communications.
If not what was it's primary mission?

73's Lee

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