[Collins] Collins military S line

Mon Jul 7 15:19:12 EDT 2014

Hi Carl,

Small world!  I was stationed at Athenai ground radio and you are right -
the mars station was in the same building as ground radio but it had a
separate entrance.  Was there from 62 to 64 also.  Was at Wheelus tdy in
summer of 63 - not a nice place after being in Athens!

73,

Bill

WA2DVU

-----Original Message-----
From: Collins [mailto:collins-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Carl
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 2:38 PM
To: Howard Holden; antqradio at sbcglobal.net; Collins at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Collins] Collins military S line

I was a USN guest op a few times 1962-63 at the USAF site at Athenai
International Airport ham station. If memory serves the MARS station was in
the same room and both had S Line with the 30L1 relegated to the ham station
which had a 6el 20M Telrex on a tall pole.

In another area, iffn I remember, was part of the regular comm station and I
sorta remember some S Line in there. Altho I had TS Crypto clearance I wasnt
allowed more than a peek from the door.

Also got to Iraklion AB on Crete once.

I also did some operating at Wheelus AB in Libya those same years during a
couple of long Med deployments; more S Line located several miles away at
the comm site. There I did get a tour of the 50KW amp and 5KW "exciter". 
Both were known to show up on 20M AM when the slopbuckets were jamming the
ham station phone patches on 20M.

Carl
KM1H

----- Original Message -----
From: "Howard Holden" <holden7471 at msn.com>
To: <antqradio at sbcglobal.net>; <Collins at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 1:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Collins] Collins military S line

> The KWM-2 (or 2A) found use in regular military nets. I was stationed at 
> Navcommsta Greece late 60s, and there were two KWM-2. One was on a 
> tactical HF ship/shore voice net, used daily 24/7 with lots of voice 
> traffic. The other was on a HF net used for routine person-to-person 
> traffic between comm stations.  No S line stuff except in the Ham/MARS 
> shack, and there only a 75S-3C. Shack transmitter was a TMC FRT-70.
>
> Howie WB2AWQ/7
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: antqradio at sbcglobal.net
> Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 8:39 AM
> To: Collins at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Collins] Collins military S line
>
> 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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