[TenTec] How much for an Orion III?

[James Duffer]

Such a sad tale.  Sorry to hear of such destruction of good and harmless equipment.  Harmless as there was no "just" reason for the destruction.
Jim, wd4air

> From: Rick at DJ0IP.de
> To: tentec at contesting.com
> Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:09:03 +0200
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] How much for an Orion III?
> 
> 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
> > _______________________________________________
> > TenTec mailing list
> > TenTec at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec