Collins KWM-2A

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd share my latest project and see what you guys think. I posted a link to the folder containing 'before' and 'after' photos below.

The person who I acquired this radio from has had it since his army days, and it was literally placed in his garage attic and forgotten for 40 years. This was evident as he did not know much about the operating procedures apart from switching it on.

The rig and accompanying kit was filthy, and needed quite a clean... she was definitely used extensively in the field and carried vast distances by some poor bloke. The CC-1 case's handle yielded quite a substantial amount of compacted red sand that literally had become part of it, no doubt fused together by repetitive coverings sweat, pressure, and dust/sand during exercise and/or real missions. The serial number has been removed, showing that it was 'imported' during the sanctions period.

There was a channel list and phonetic alphabet list taped to the top, which I wanted to preserve as part of the history and provenance. The CP-1 crystal pack was in bad shape and I was expecting numerous crystals to be unaccounted for, however to my surprise only one crystal was found to be missing, which has been replenished in the interim.

Although I proceeded with cleaning as gently as possible, unfortunately some of the lettering on the face rubbed off during the process (white rings under under Exciter Tuning and P.A. Tuning), however I will be attempting to sort this out in due course.

Amazingly she gives a good 130w when properly tuned and on 'Lock' emission, however there still are some issues with switching back fully to RX as well as with the mic input not showing much of an effect on output and ALC reading. I suspected the 6EB6 valve but still encountered the same problem after replacing it, twice.

I hope you guys enjoy the pictures, and thoughts would be appreciated.

The set includes the PM-2 onboard power supply, CP-1 crystal pack, MM-1 hand microphone, and CC-1 Samsonite carry case.

More info and specs on the KWM-2A can be found in the museum section "here"

Posted by Jacques ZS6JPS
on 08.07.2014 11:45