[TenTec] How much for an Orion III?

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

Sure there was... Government stupidity and its insistence on wasting tax
payers' money!

73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)


-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of James
Duffer
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 8:17 PM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] How much for an Orion III?

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
> > _______________________________________________
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> > TenTec at contesting.com
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> >
> 
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