[TenTec] How much for an Orion III?

Mon Apr 14 17:19:28 EDT 2014

Well, the story of the stupid destruction of those KWM-2/2A's and S-Lines is
an old story.  Sad to say, while there are variations on the theme, it's a
common story from almost any US military installation, regardless of the
branch, that was decommissioning the units at the time.

In essence, someone high enough up simply didn't want to "take any chances"
about ANY electronics that MIGHT have been used to encrypt/decrypt secure
communications.  So, he or she ordered that they take the benefit of the
doubt... and destroy EVERYTHING.  Which included all of that Collins gear,
and more.

That's one of the reasons, I have been told, that the flood of MilSurplus
equipment that used to flood the Amateur market has dried up.

Now, the good news is, a good bit (though not nearly enough!) of that gear
was... intercepted before destruction, and ended up in MARS stations, or
MilRec stations, or even, eventually, in private hands (I don't want to know
how!!)  

Still, it's a real shame.

Could you imagine, though, what the Amateur used equipment market would have
been like if a flood of MilSurplus KWM-2's had suddenly become available?  

Oh well.  So it goes.

73, ron w3wn

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of k6jek
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 4:11 PM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] How much for an Orion III?

I would have had nightmares for years if I'd witnessed that. I may have them
anyway just hearing about it.

On Apr 14, 2014, at 12:51 PM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:

> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TenTec mailing list
>>> TenTec at contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>>> 
>> 
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