[Elecraft] KX3 Shipment notification

[Fred Jensen]

On 7/18/2012 6:48 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
> Sure, but the "transceiver" goes way back into the 1930's, long before Art
> Collins.

Yep, and there was also the KWM-1.  None of these truly became popular 
in the sense of "all over the place," and none of them hastened the 
transition to SSB like the KWM-2 did.  Tuning SSB on a receiver was 
hard, and then getting your transmit freq zero beat was daunting at 
first, and still hard even as SSB caught on.

The KWM-2A [same rig with a second crystal deck], became the HF 
workhorse of the US military [and I know several others too] in the 
60's/70's.  Unbelievably sturdy and survivable, we pulled 42 of them out 
the back of low flying C-130's that snagged our LAPES cable, and 42 of 
them worked and JJY was exactly where it should be.

Our mission rules called for us to turn each pair [2 per mission], along 
with the rest of the gear, to slag puddles with thermite before we were 
recovered.  Team of 25, 3 hams, really really hard. :-((

It wasn't the first transceiver, or the only, but it, and the S-line 
which would also transceive, probably changed ham radio as much as the 
transition from spark to CW.  Now, we take it for granted, we have 
"radios" and they go both ways.  I always meant to write to Art and tell 
him how sturdy his transceiver was.  Alas, never had time while there, 
and by the time I came home, I was marrying Andrea, there followed the 
usual kids, and I never got around to it.  Then, he died.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012
- www.cqp.org