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HAM RADIO

What is it?  Ham Radio is just another name for amateur radio.  Ham Radio had its start from the very beginning of radio in the mid-teens of the 1900's.  It was only natural that if you heard someone on radio that you might want to try to talk with them.  So the "experimenter, curiosity and inquisitiveness" in people started building transmitters to enable two-way communication between people with distance between them.  At first it was only meters, then miles, then hundreds of miles, then thousands and after a couple of decades it was around the world communication.  One of the leaders in design was Arthur Collins who founded Collins Radio.  Collins Radio is in most Ham Radio operators mind's, the pinnacle of manufacturers, the best of the best.  


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HAM RADIO MUSEUM

This section of our web-site is dedicated to HAM RADIO and since I am somewhat nuts about COLLINS RADIO equipment, it only follows that I would post some pictures of some real beautiful Collins station equipment.  None of this is for sale as it doesn't belong to me but feast your eyes upon these beauties !  So here goes our start on a Ham Radio Virtual Museum. . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             From Top Left to Right - we'll try to identify this wonderful equipment . . .

  312A-1 Speaker/Light Bird Wattmeter 270G-1 Speaker      
312B-1 Exciter 75A-4 Receiver 32V-3 Transmitter 75A-1 Receiver 75A-3 Receiver 51J-4 Communications Receiver 75A-4 Receiver 
  Astatic Mike       Astatic Mike  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From top left on down (30S-1 linear on left) - we're guessing on some of this . . .
(Photo courtesy of W1GZS)

    302C-3 W/E SWR Meter 312B-3 R/E Speaker 399C-1 W/E Speaker/PTO for KWM-2
  KWM-2A W/E Transceiver 312B-5 W/E VFO/Control Console 51S-1 R/E Communications Receiver 32S-3 W/E Transmitter
30S-1 Linear Amplifier 32S-3 R/E Transmitter 312B-4 R/E Station Console 75S-3B W/E Receiver 30L-1 W/E Linear Amplifier
    SM-3 Microphone Vibroplex Keyer SM-2 Microphone

Now isn't that a bunch of beautiful Collins Equipment?

(I wish I could say my ham station looked like this . . . . perhaps in my dreams someday . . . .)

Below are some miscellaneous ham items that we have acquired or that are unusual or older items rarely seen these days . . . thought you might be interested in some of these pictures.....

 


This is our latest restoration, a better than Mint Collins R390/URR - the grandaddy of the series - completely restored to better than new condition - Sold 2005


All Mil-Spec - tube shields throughout, everything clean as a pin, notice the heavy duty modular construction of the R390/URR - bottom view


The back is immaculate.  You can see the highly polished slug-rack system and note that there are two stainless-steel tube pullers which are impossible to find intact on these old beauties . . . .

The above 3 pictures are for a late production run for the R390/URR built by Motorola under Collins contract.  This is the grandaddy of the R390 series of radios having some 33 tubes employed.  This receiver has been completely rebuilt and is currently in our museum.  As of 2/05, it was sold for over $ 3500.  This receiver is so pristine, you can almost perceive that it has "Art's" breath still on it.  If interested, we have more pictures that we can send you.  Until the time that someone wants it more than me, I'm just going to enjoy it . . . . . . . .


This below image is a mint Collins designed Amelco R390A/URR communications receiver.  This receiver was restored by a meticulous restorer and frankly it looks like a Swiss watch on the inside.  Even the gear assembly was cleaned and lubed in such a way that it looks brand new.  Even the tube shields have been polished.  It is spotless inside and outside and is shown in its mint CY929/URR mil-spec case that was built for the R390A/URR receivers by the U.S. Army.  Note the rack handles and shock mounts that came with the brand new mounting cabinet.  This is truly one heck of a receiver and we are proud to be the owners of this classic radio.  If you don't know much about the R390A, take a look at our R390A museum information on the web.  We also have a CD-ROM publication that has all of the technical bulletins from the Navy, Air Force and Army on this fabulous receiver.   Click this link to get to our museum R390A page . . . . .


Amelco (Collins Radio) R390A/URR Communications Receiver

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collins R390/URR

Front View

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R390/URR bottom view

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R390/URR back view

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R390A/URR

How about this early 60's vintage Collins Radio Communications and Demo Van for their Amateur Radio Equipment?
This van is owned by a California Ham who restored the van and all the equipment inside it.  Now that's a real Collins Collector for sure!  

Pictures taken 10/2001 at the Collins Collectors Convention in Dallas, Texas



This is a Collins Radio Designed and Built Military Receiver, Type R388/URR, serial number 1964.  It is in very near mint condition, working perfectly in unbelievable condition.  It was built between 1952 and 1962.  The commercial version is type 51J-3.  This one, as described, is like new.  The inside and outside are like new, all original equipment in place, even the cover(not shown) has the original spline wrench set and screwdriver attached in the tool mounts.

How about a beautiful Hallicrafters SX-100 from an estate.  This was one of the first SSB receivers made by Hallicrafters in 1956.  The SX-88 was the first Hallicrafters to offer SSB reception.

This is a recent restoration project with a Hallicrafters S40A.  After some capacitor repairs, cleaning (it was filthy), and alignment, it was working like new, and it only lasted 5 days on our web before someone needed it more than us!!
This is a great old Collins 32V-3 Transmitter in excellent working condition.  It even had a brand new old stock final amplifier tube and original manual.  This -V3 model had many updates to the earlier V1 and V2 models including drastic reduction of TVI interference.

These two pictures are what is known as the Harris RF-350K system.  It consists of a 100 Watt transceiver that will tune any band/mode from 1.6 to 30MHz.  It sits on a 500W output solid state w/output tube transmitter that feeds the automatic antenna tuner shown below in the olive drab box.  This system auto tunes any frequency - any mode in 5 seconds.

National Radio Military R1490/GRR17 Super Communications Receiver - the last of National Radio production - click the picture  for a link to this receiver
This is a WWII transmitter, Type BC191-F which was a 12V version of a BC375.  These were the mainstay of airborne transmitters during WWII until post WWII when the Collins ART-13 replaced these units.  The lower left section with the rack handles is the Tuner and there were various plug-in units to match the transmitter to various frequencies.
This is the famous Collins Radio Auto tuning ART-13 transmitter that replaced all of the BC375's towards the end of WWII.  These are in hot demand as an AM transmitter these days with the resurgence of AM as a transmission mode by ham radio operators operating in the "nostalgia" mode !
This is the famous Collins TCS-5 WWII transmitter that was used primarily by the Navy during the war.  It has a matching size receiver and has a variety of power sources that could power it.

This is a mint-condition  National Radio HRO5TA1 communication receiver system built in 1946-1947.  It is complete with 6 mint plug-in coils and matching National speaker
This is the matching TCS-8 receiver that is the mate to the TCS-5 transmitter shown above.  This was a WWII receiver designed by Collins Radio and used by the Navy.  Note the shock mounts and mounting plate.  This one is near mint condition and was part of a large military estate we liquidated recently.
How about a "BIG" Transmmitter, recently sold, click picture for more information
Very Early National 1-10 Shortwave Receiver . . a very mint condition HF/VHF receiver from the early 1930's.  This receiver was part of a high quality estate handled by REA.
This is National's famous SW-3 early 1930's receiver that was very popular with the hams of the day.  This receiver is in mint condition, had 5 extra coils for the various bands and was part of a high quality estate handled by REA
This is a rare Collins receiver.  This is the R648/ARR41 which was the predecessor to the famous Collins R390 and R390A receiver.  This receiver replaced the famous WWII receivers that are known as the BC348 series receivers.  This was built as an aircraft receiver to run from a dynamotor but Collins also made an AC power supply module that this one had installed.  This was a working receiver and was sold on an Ebay auction.  We also have the technical information for it.  We had to do some digging to find out what this was since the tags were removed from the front of the receiver.  With all of the Collins equipment that we have had, this is the only one of these we have ever seen.  BTW, it had 20 tubes, a built in AC suppply and mechanical filters for CW and Voice.
   
   
   

This page is getting too large and I will probably start breaking it down into categories for faster loading to get to the pictures that you might enjoy . . . . . .  

I will be adding more as time permits - hope you enjoyed it so far . . . . man as I look at these pictures, my mouth starts watering . . . . Collins Radio?  What is it about this stuff that starts the adrenaline to start flowing??  I look at these radios and my palms get itchy and sweaty and my hand starts jerking back towards my wallet  . . . wait a minute those clammy $1.00 bills in my wallet aren't even going to buy a tube . . . wait here's my check book, who has some of this stuff for sale?  Surely there must be someone hoarding too much out there that needs to get rid of some and gain some new space . . . if that someone is you, contact me at "feedback" button on top of most web pages!     Terry - W5OAS

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