[TenTec] How much for an Orion III?

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

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 at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dave
Edwards
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 6:16 PM
To: tentec at 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 at 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
> _______________________________________________
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