I think a good troubleshoot is almost as satisfying as a successful homebrew. And we can sense that high level of satisfaction in Pete N6QW’s description of his repair of a Collins KWM-1:
I liked Pete’s troubleshoot/repair story, but — as is often the case — I struck by his turn of a phrase. I think Pete has added something important to the SolderSmoke lexicon:
THE SHAME SHELF
Most of us have a shelf like this. I have an HW-101 on mine. Pete shows us that there is hope — there is path off of the shame shelf. You just have to know stuff…. Or have IBEW friends like Pete who can advise you.
Unfortunately, I too have a shelf (shelves actually) of shame and it is a very appropriate name! The KWS-1 was a transition radio between the collins A line and the S line. You can see genes from both families. Not quite S line yet, but beyond A line.
Interestingly, I have a shelf of ‘success’. The rest of the shack is a shame😩.
I worked on a KWM-2. I had some meant problems with it each stage had a problem. I hit it to receive ok but not transmit as it had incorrect 6146,s in it one was a “B”and two were “A”. You can’t mix them. Anyway I sent it back to it’s own. I must admit I don’t like them. Much prefer a nice Kenwood TS83s.
TS830s