I can answer some of that, first hand.
In about 1973, the US Army in Europe (USAREUR) decided to close down hf and
go fully to VHF and UHF.
Hundreds of S-Lines and KWM-2A's were collected and brought to the army
disposal center in south western Germany.
I was custodian of a MARS station in Berlin and on TDY in the area of the
disposal center, so I dropped in to see if I could scrounge anything to
distribute through the MARS channels to our members. There I witnessed the
beautiful Collins radios stacked by the hundreds, in an area of about 50 ft.
by 75 ft - being destroyed!
There were a few guys working hard destroying them. Every tube was being
broken with a hammer and the chassis of each was cut in half with a torch.
Seems they had been used by the Army Security Agency and they were afraid
there might be some residual top secret data still inside some of the tube.
I did everything I could to try and stop the action but to no avail.
Everyone on site was just following orders and they were not willing to
pause while I tried to find a solution. All of the radios were all
completely destroyed.
I was in tears. I could have made every MARS member in Germany's dream come
true if some moron hadn't have taken the decision to destroy them.
So that's what happened to our military S-Lines here in Europe.
73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dave
Edwards
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 6:16 PM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] How much for an Orion III?
Also interesting (to think about)...
I wonder what percentage of them still exist today?
How many does the government still own?
How many remain on dusty shelves somewhere....unopened???
....Dave
On 4/14/14, 9:56 AM, Rsoifer@aol.com wrote:
> I asked Rod, K0DAS (retired from Rockwell Collins), how many KWM-2s
> were bought by hams rather than Uncle Sam. He said that nobody
> really knows, but his best guess is that the U.S. armed forces bought
> between 1/4 and 1/3 of them. Some went to other government agencies
> as well as foreign governments. That still leaves quite a few that were
bought by hams like me.
>
> 73 Ray W2RS
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
_______________________________________________
TenTec mailing list
TenTec@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
|