[TenTec] How much for an Orion III?

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

Stuart, this is how it really works, and you don't need some director:

We were patching back to the states and to Nam but not with a very good
signal.
One of our regular customers was the Commanding General's XYL.

I invited her to the MARS station and told her it works a little better when
sitting on the radio rather than using the telephone.  (which it does)
We had set up a little staging area for people waiting their turn to patch.

I showed her around the station, and explained that we had really old shabby
equipment and poor antennas, but every request for more money had been
turned down.  I also told her we were buying the coffee and cookies in the
staging area out of our own pocket because we didn't want to serve civilians
GI-coffee.

It took about 10 days.
I was called into my CO's office who couldn't help but smile as he asked,
"what have you done?"
He then said that I should make a list of what I wanted, we were getting new
equipment.
"Orders from above."

So I wrote down a wish list (actually a dream list), including stuff that
was not normal military issue (an amplifier built by Raytrack).
I got everything on the list.  Every last piece.
:Two KWM2's, an S-Line including the 30S1, one new tower (the old tower was
still good), a 4-elelent monobander for 20m, two new CDE rotors, and bunches
of coax and wire with which I built the wire beams listed on my web site.

So now the secret is out.
Now you guys know who really runs the army!  
The Commanding General's XYL!  ;-)

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


-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Stuart
Rohre
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 11:53 PM
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] How much for an Orion III?

Well actually, the typical Army MARS post station, even the one for a whole
Army, such as Fourth Army at Ft. Sam Houston, was heavily dependent on how
good the Director was at getting funding from the Signal Corps or whomever
controlled the purse strings.

In my first year in Army Mars as a civilian ham, the Post station had a
Collins KWM set up, but their other main transmitter was a BC 610, and some
surplus receiver (SP 610 or BC 348).

They also had a wonderful transmitter site on a hill full of rhombics which
had been the Post HF station linking them to Washington, the Canal Zone,
Europe and Asia.  Later, they were forced to move to much more confined
quarters without rhombics; and use a beam and dipoles on the Old Post, near
the Ft. Sam Houston historic Quadrangle fort area.

To make up somewhat, for the comedown in space, the Director wrangled a
Technical Material Corp. TMC 90 receiver, which appeared even higher tech
than KWM II equipment.  They may have gotten a TMC transmitter also, but I
don't recall the BC 610 going away either.  The 610 was of course
Hallicrafters WW2 vintage, AM and CW.

Later at the time of Viet Nam, I understand a lot of MARS stations were
equipped over there with KWM II's and 30L1's to enable phone patch welfare
traffic, in the days before email and computer phones.

The KWM II, even barefoot into the old Rhombics from the 30's station, was
like shooting fish in a barrel on the ham bands.

Stuart Rohre
K5KVH
(AA5KVH)
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