[Premium-Rx] WJ / DRS Gaithersburg is closed

[Steve Pappin via Premium-Rx]

This is an update to my post about DRS and what's left of WJ. Terry O's 
comments track what I'm being told. There is a lot of misinformation 
floating around. I got an email from Dave Shane and he clarified exactly 
what has occurred. I will continue to send your requests for support to DRS 
when it is appropriate. Hopefully this clarifies the current situation:

1) Vintage / Legacy WJ product support has been eliminated for most products 
older than 15 years
2) There are no more hard bound manuals. Everything that remains has been 
digitized or was never available in hard copy.
3) There is no longer any support for the WJ 8615, 8617, 8618, 8888, 8716, 
8718 or anything earlier
4) There may be very limited support for the 8711A, 8712A, 8611, and 8607, 
subject to change at any time
5) The Watkins-Johnson facility at 700 Quince Orchard Road Gaithersburg, 
Maryland 20878-1794 closed in December of 2014
6) The new DRS Signal Solutions facility is located at 1 Milestone Center 
Court - Germantown, MD 20876 - USA

Many of the people who worked on the original WJ products are gone but a few 
are still at DRS. The new DRS people are focusing on the new product lines 
and have limited interest in the old product lines. Answers are not going to 
come quickly because legacy products are not a high priority.

 Watkins-Johnson is gone. What remains is limited to a handful of resources 
at DRS. The original WJ building is empty. 95% of the WJ contents were 
purged while most of the DRS contents were transferred to the new building. 
A limited number of the original WJ products were converted to DRS products.

There are rumors that new radios with front panels are still available from 
WJ / DRS. I can assure you that this is just a rumor!

I would encourage anyone who still has connections with WJ employees to 
discuss the legacy and collect whatever they can while they can. Like you I 
love the original products but I have limited time to investigate each and 
every one. I also have to focus on the newer products because that's what 
they pay me to do. I will continue to service the original products as long 
as parts and resources are available. If you have any of the early CEI or WJ 
manuals please scan them so that I can post them on the FTP site. This is 
the best way to ensure that the legacy lives on.

Best Regards,
Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Pappin via Premium-Rx" <premium-rx at mailman.qth.net>
To: <premium-rx at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 11:29 AM
Subject: [Premium-Rx] WJ / DRS Gaithersburg is closed


> It's official: DRS / Watkins-Johnson Gaithersburg MD is closed. Everything 
> is gone. According to Chris Biddix they scrapped everything, hardware, 
> replacement parts, demo units, chassis, and all of the printed material. 
> If it was physical it was either crushed or incinerated. Chris is going to 
> ask if any of it went to surplus dealers but we doubt it. I placed a bid 
> on the demo units last year but management decided that the liability was 
> too great. All that remains of WJ is intellectual property. The building 
> is up for sale. There will be no more new factory replacement parts for WJ 
> radios.
>
> DRS will continue to build the new radios for UAV's and Command Centers. 
> None of them have front panels! So any new radios offered will be:
> a. Expensive
> b. Network Appliances controlled by host computers
> c. Require system integration
>
> Best Regards,
> Steve
>
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