[SMCARA] Collins print ads - the early years

[Clarke, Tom AIR4.0P NATOPS]

Thanks, Boz, some neat stuff there!

My all time favorite Collins rig is the KW-1.  My local radio club in
Connecticut when I was in High School had a KW-1 and a National NC-300
receiver.  We were on the top (4th) floor of the town office/police
station and had a 4 element 10 M yagi up on the roof.  10M AM was THE
mode back then and a kilowatt on 10 M to a yagi was killer! We used 10M
then like we use 2M FM today. Although it wasn't unusual to have an
Australian or European station check in during our weekly nets!

Common mobile stations consisted of a Gonset converter (80/40/20/10)
into the car radio and either a Lettine 240, a Stancor ST-203, or a
homebrew transmitter from the ARRL handbook,  10 M AM running around 25
watts. One guy in town had a converted Command Set with a big dynamotor
power supply for transmit.  Every time he keyed the mic, the dynamotor
would spin up and make a real howl! I had a Creative Electronics
Transcon 10 and 6 which was a transmitter (10 watts AM) and a 10 M to BC
converter in one box.  It stole the B+ from the car radio (tube type
with vibrator PS).  I worked for the company that built them, so got a
"good deal" on the rig!

SSB was just starting to be popular, so eventually our club nets moved
to 2M AM using the old Gonset Communicators (Gooney Box) or the VHF
ARC-5 or SCR-522 aircraft radios. In addition to the big 10M AM rig in
the club, we had a converted SCR-522 2M AM rig hooked up to a ground
plane on the roof. I often wonder what happened to the old KW-1.  They
are rare today and have an enormous price tag!  There is one for sale
right now in the classified ads of ElectricRadio magazine for $15,000!

Historical note:  The SCR-522 radio was developed by the Brits during
early WW2 and was used in the Spitfire and Hurricane during the Battle
of Britain, and later, the Mustang.  Prior to that they used HF for air
to air and air to ground comms.

73 Tom/W4OKW, ex K1AST

Theodore Roosevelt


-----Original Message-----
From: Bozovich, Richard W CIV COM NAV AIR WAR AC DIV, 4.5.10 
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 9:56 AM
Subject: Collins print ads - the early years
Importance: Low

I thought you might find this of interest.

http://www.wa3key.com/crads.html


Regards,
Richard Bozovich

4.5.10.1 shipboard communication engineering and integration
O: (301) 995-8656	
C: (301) 997-4492