[MRCA] The T-195

[David Olean]

For most of my adult life, I have had an aversion to the Collins T-195 
transmitter. It all started when I ran a signal maintenance shop in the 
Army from 1968 to 1971.  I saw a never ending stream of T-195s come 
through the door after each field exercise.  Of course, the R-392 
companion receiver was never to be seen. They just seemed to work great 
all the time. I loved the R-392. In my retirement, I have been restoring 
some R-392s and just love working on them. I just obtained R-392  #5 to 
re work and it came with a T-195. I have been giving the T-195 a 
cautious glance, and the more that I see, the more I seem to be liking 
it.  I am going to try to get it going. I looked over the manuals and I 
need to get much more familiar with the auto-tune circuits. As I recall, 
many of the problems in the field involved a failure of the auto-tune 
sections, but we were dealing with operators who were clueless and heavy 
handed, so I think my perceptions were clouded a bit!

So my question is:  Am I on the right track getting a T-195 working so 
that I can check in on AM on 3885?  What are the pitfalls to look for 
with this set?  I do have the solid state power units for it, and my 
particular set came with those plus a spare PTO and PA deck.  The 
insides look quite jammed together and I am sure certain problems may be 
difficult to deal with as a result.   Just looking for some general advice.

Dave K1WHS