The article below prompted my question. Collins gear was superb! I don't have any, but I do have a very fine Drake SPR-4 receiver. Dual conversion with 5 MHz & 50 KHz IF stages and an LMO that spans a 550 KHz range. Selectable audio bandwidth plus a sharp and deep notch filter. Crystals for ham and SWL bands, two more for the AM broadcast band, and a couple for LF bands. When I lived in the Twin Cities, where QRN is very low in the wintertime, I had many hours of fun with this box!

"United Technologies announced Monday it will acquire Rockwell Collins…

United Technologies will pay $140 per share in cash and stock for Rockwell Collins. The multinational conglomerate will spend $22.75 billion in order to expand its aerospace capabilities. Including debt, the acquisition is worth $30 billion…"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/a...er.com/amp/631755001

Back in the late 80's, I worked with some of their frequency hopping radios and HF sounding equipment. They also had 1KW combiners for HF Giant Talk. They have always made great equipment.

I have an old 32V-3 transmitter somewhere. It's a real beast and probably weighs upwards of 80-90 lbs. I spent a lot of time looking for an R-390 to pair it with but never managed to find one in my price range. Good gear.

Collins Radio gear was the gold standard in amateur radios for several decades after WWII.

One of the old timers had a full station of Collins "S Line" gear and my brother and I spent many happy hours in his shack drooling and operating from his station. Having such gear was beyond the dreams of a couple of teenagers in high school!

I spent some time operating the Collins equipped MARS station at NAS North Island when I was stationed there, running phone patches from WestPac.

Collins abandoned the amateur market in favor of defense and avionics products years ago.

The old gear is still prized by some, and there is a Collins club devoted to updates, parts hunting, maintenance tips and reliving the thrilling days of yesteryear.

Used them on airplanes, excellent radios and nav equiptment, as someone said, it is the Gold Standard.

They do/did make great equipment. The last piece I worked on was a URC-32 shipboard HF transceiver in the mid-70s. IIRC, I had more trouble with the antenna tuner - and a couple of radiomen whose mission in life was to damage it by mis-tuning when changing freqs. - than the radio itself. It was generally very reliable equipment.

Collins Commercial AM radio transmitters were the standard for many years. The heat from a 1000/250 Watt transmitter in the next room kept me warm on a few damp New Jersey nights.

I used to operate at U.S. Army MARS radio station AA2USA at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, in my off-duty time. Had a rack full of R390s in one room. Mostly used for TTY (teletype) nets. Three studios with Collins setups, the Big Kahuna being Studio 1, which had a complete Collins S-Line and a 2KW Collins amp. Antenna for that rig was a gigantic 13-element log-periodic array atop an equally massive "phone pole," turned by (they claimed) a modified helicopter prop pitch rotor. (The antenna seemed damn near as big as the building.)

Used to spend hour after hour there running phone patches for servicemen in Viet Nam, Korea and Germany.

Man, that was some station

Pro Line gear was the top radio gear - both panel mount and rack mounted remote head avionics. King gave them a good run for the money. When I was training up as an avionics tech at Northrop it was the best equipment to work on.

I've had a KWM-2A but my Drake TR4-CW was a better radio. Loved the entire look of the KWM-2A however.

I have an early 1950s model 75-A4 that is my flagship radio. What a great radio. I bought it at a Lawrenceville, Ga hamfest for close to what it sold for in the 50s, then spent half that getting it perfect. Wish I had a way to upload photos.

One of my distant relations had the S line station (complete) don't know what happened to it when he passed but I surely would have loved to have had it.

On another note that has been mentioned here, I was in NAVMARCORP MARS in the 80"s and that was some of the most rewarding activities I ever accomplished thru the hobby. Words cannot describe how good it would make you feel when you would call up a service mans wife or mother or other relative and when you are done reading the message to them you can hear the tears of happiness in their voice when the thank you.

Guess I need to get a wire back up in the air and dust off the Icom 735 and see if it still works.

I have a Collins audio panel in the Piper. It's probably 50 years old and still rockin...They were just acquired by United Tech for $140B. Will make them a formidable force in all aviation.

Former operator (part time) of AB4MB ( ShiHung South Korea) We used 2 Collins KWM 2A and a second Collins recerver to run an unauthorized split rig. We transmitted via a Collins 1000 Watt linear amp.

quote:

Originally posted by p113565:
I've had a KWM-2A but my Drake TR4-CW was a better radio. Loved the entire look of the KWM-2A however.

I have an early 1950s model 75-A4 that is my flagship radio. What a great radio. I bought it at a Lawrenceville, Ga hamfest for close to what it sold for in the 50s, then spent half that getting it perfect. Wish I had a way to upload photos.

Yep. Collins was the best but gradually was overtaken by others. My brother and I ended up operating Drake C-lines for many years. I had the L-4B too. With a 4-4-5 quad at near 70',
I could talk to nearly anyone I wanted to.

Now the top guys have gone through Drake to Tentec, and now in to Elecraft.

I bet that 75A4 is sweet!

quote:

Originally posted by SIG 229R:

Guess I need to get a wire back up in the air and dust off the Icom 735 and see if it still works.

I have a 735, as well as more modern and newer radios, but I get more compliments on the 735's sound. You should put it back on the air. 73's de N5...

My Icom 735 was a cold solder joint nightmare. I spent hours reheating joints in it. It finally decided to start blowing fuses and I sold it to a ham store and replaced it with a Kenwood TS-450SAT, a radio with really nice audio. I adapted the Icom SM-10 equalizer mike and I was about as loud as you could be running 100 watts. I have a TS-850SAT now, but I'm about done with the ham stuff and will sell it soon, as it's just sitting on my desk.

As I recall, we used to have some Collins gear that wore olive drab. We ran voice and radio teletype while sitting on the east west German border. Great gear until some idiots decided to improve them by adding another tube in the receivers. Never had one fail up to that point, and after the "improvement", about half our gear was down for repairs.

I have Collins Microline in one of the planes; the gear has been virtually troublefree for 35+ years. Ancient, but it works.

JALLEN,
Reading your reply above I thought you'd appreciate this list of radios I am fortunate to have had:
Drake TR4-CW, KWM-2A, and an Icom 756.
I am even luckier to currently have:
Drake 2B
Collins 75A4
Drake R8B
Yaesu FT101EE
Hallicrafters SR400 Cyclone
Elecraft K3 w panadapter
Elecraft KX3 w panadapter
Yaesu FT897
Heathkit HL-2200

While I am a licensed ham ,and even passed the code test, I am still convinced there's a bit of magic in play that's responsible for our ability to talk 1/2 way around the world using < 1 watt on a piece of wire strung up in the trees.

quote:

Originally posted by p113565:
JALLEN,
Reading your reply above I thought you'd appreciate this list of radios I am fortunate to have had:
Drake TR4-CW, KWM-2A, and an Icom 756.
I am even luckier to currently have:
Drake 2B
Collins 75A4
Drake R8B
Yaesu FT101EE
Hallicrafters SR400 Cyclone
Elecraft K3 w panadapter
Elecraft KX3 w panadapter
Yaesu FT897
Heathkit HL-2200

While I am a licensed ham ,and even passed the code test, I am still convinced there's a bit of magic in play that's responsible for our ability to talk 1/2 way around the world using < 1 watt on a piece of wire strung up in the trees.

Yes, indeedy! Lots of fun! I have a couple of K2's now, one QRP, one with amp. I had a couple of Omni VI+ in the past and before that the C Line. I had an SB101 and a FT101 back in the '70's while I was living near Chollas Reservoir in San Diego. I've been licensed since the Eisenhower Administration! It's not so much a hobby as it is a disease.