[Collins] Collins military S line

rjkarizona at cox.net rjkarizona at cox.net
Mon Jul 7 13:23:16 EDT 2014 

Hello Glen and Collins group.

Your account is partially correct about the Harris Pacer Bounce transceivers
and being replaced by the Collins S-line equipment.

Yes, the Harris radios failed.  They were newly introduced to the U.S.
Military that year and the 
first echelon maintenance was not being observed because the users did not
have
any training and they needed those radios quickly.  Collins S-line equipment
was quickly
deployed and worked successfully during that military campaign. 

The basic problem was the sand and dust as you correctly mentioned.
On the 500 watt and 1Kw Harris units, there is a front panel foam cover that
allows air to flow to
The 3CX800A7 or the 3CX1500A7 (8877) tubes.  An internal vane switch was
used to determine
if enough air was flowing and if the vane switch was not activated, the
transceiver
would not transmit.  It was that simple.  All that was necessary was to
remove the gauze
filter, rinse it in water, let it dry (for a few minutes in the dry desert)
and the radio
would function properly.  There was no report about receiver front end
failures.
After the problem was solved, the Harris units were re-deployed to the
military, but after the
Desert Shield intervention.

Jim Perkins, of Rockwell-Collins, teased me about that issue at the Armed
Forced
Communications and Electronics Association exhibition in Washington that
year. 

After the maintenance training on the Pacer Bounce radios was commenced, 
The Harris Pacer Bounce equipment was used successfully in all kinds of
environment for many years.

Now, the Harris Falcon series is used by the U.S. Military and is a full
mil-spec
Radio system.  I could never understand why Rockwell-Collins stopped making
tactical radio equipment and essentially turned over the business to Harris
and
General Dynamics Corp.  It is a shame because Collins designed and built an
excellent product.

Regards,
Dick Kessler  

=============================================================================

 
 
 
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Glen Zook
Date: 7/7/2014 9:26:12 AM
To: antqradio at sbcglobal.net;  Collins at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Collins] Collins military S line
 
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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