[South Florida DX Association] "Unit" KWM-2 Identified!

[Bill Marx]

Interesting information from the "Collins" list
-Bill W2CQ



>I wanted to e-mail the group and provide some information on the Collins
> KWM-2 that was used on
> the TV Series, The Unit, that aired last night. I was the third  and last
> owner of this transceiver before
> I sold it to Twentith Century Fox Television. Here is a brief history of 
> the
> transceiver:
>
> It was purchased new in the early 1960s from R.L. Howard of Howard Radio 
> in
> Abilene, Texas by Ray T. Cole, K5BUI, Tuscola, Texas (near Abilene). Ray
> kept it until his death in 1992 or 1993. Ray was a "Collins Man" having an
> early S-Line and 30L-1.
> Ray's Collins gear was purchased from his widow by his friend Richard 
> "Dick"
> Lee, K5CVH, Abilene, Texas. Dick kept the gear until his death about this
> time last year. Dick was also a "Collins Man" having a room full of 
> Collins
> gear when he died. All of his ham gear was taken to the Abilene Hamfest in
> May of
> 2005. I purchased most of his Collins gear at the hamfest at that time.
>
> In August of 2005, James Zemansky of Twentith Century Fox contaced me 
> about
> buying some Collins gear for an upcoming TV Series, The Unit, then in
> production. He had visited my webpage (see below).
> Mr. Zemansky wanted a KWM-2 because he had seen them in operation in Viet
> Nam when he served
> there. He told me that it would be used as a radio for the "bad guys", and
> that he did not need a
> high tech, up to date radio for them. We struck a bargin for the Collins
> KWM-2 noted above and a
> Collins 516F-2 Cabinet.  He also wanted a Collins hand mic, so I loaned 
> him
> my Collins MM-1 mic if he promised to send it back to me after production,
> which he did. I still have the manual to this KWM-2.
> He did not want it or the power supply.
>
> The KWM-2 I sold him did not work. It would receive but not transmit. That
> was fine with him, but he
> did want the dial and meter lights to light up so it would look like it 
> was
> working. He said that his special effects people would provide the radio
> sounds, hence the squelch tail. Hi.  Since there was no Power Supply in 
> the
> 516F-2 Cabinet, I agreed to rig up a plug-in Wall Wort to power the #47
> meter and dial bulbs.  I cut the wires going to these bulb sockets and 
> wired
> them directly to the Wall Wort. I found one that was close to 6.3 Volts. I
> was happy to see that the lights showed up good on the show.
>
> I also got a kick out of how the fellow just moved the dial to the exact
> frequency like he was clicking
> through some  preset channels.  And the frequency of 120.XXX was a hoot.
> But all in all they did
> a pretty good job. At least the MM-1 was plugged into the mic jack of  the
> KWM-2. I also noticed
> a jack and cord plugged into the Phones jack on the front of the
> transceiver. James wanted a headset and I sent them one of my old 
> headsets,
> but suggested  that they not use it if they had a speaker (in the 516F-2
> Cabinet) going with the appearance of sound coming from it. Also, I figure
> the dipole was Jim
> Zemansky's idea based on his observations in Viet Nam.
> Thanks for reading,
> Charlie Hugg, K5MBX
> CCA#00307
>
> ________________________________
> See my Signal/One, Collins & Drake
> Photo Galleries and my Hallicrafters
> Virtual Museum at http://hug-a-bug.com