Welcome to my Collins KWS-1& 75A4 Page


Welcome to my Collins KWS-1 & 75A4 Page.  I have included some pictures of my Collins KWS-1 and 75A4 station. I owned this station for about 15 years before selling it in the big radio sell off.

The transmitter was very (!) exciting to have in the shack, to operate, and make contacts with.  I enjoyed running classic SSB, AM, and CW with this fine rig and often checked into the Collins Collectors Association 75m and 20m nets with it.  I got great AM and SSB audio reports!  Interestingly enough, the AM is single side-banded AM, and most folks can't tell unless they try to zero beat me and notice the missing sideband.  AM Audio quality is excellent and only seems to drop after someone notices the missing sideband :)    I  ran an Astatic 10DA microphone.

This set up has a nickname of "The Gold Dust Twins" because they were so expensive to own back in the 1950's.

You know, when I flipped the high voltage switch on this transmitter, with the filament and plate voltage jewels glowing red and green, and the blower sound as it tries to cool those 4x250's, and the look of the large transmitter, it felt like I was running 100,000 watts. Its just gotta give me an extra 12 db just from the "cool" alone.

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Collins KWS-1 Instruction Manual

 

 

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Here is a pictures of my Collins KWS-1 transmitter (left) and Collins 75A4 receiver (right), Collins 270G3 speaker sitting on top of the receiver. The power supply is is setting on the floor to the left and not shown.

Here is another angle picture of the Collins KWS-1 transmitter and Collins 75A4 receiver. Note the KWS-1 power supply sitting on the floor to the left of the desk. A Johnson Viking KW Matchbox antenna tuner is sitting on top of the power supply.

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Here is a picture of the "Gold Dust Twins" in a stacked position. Starting on top is the 270G3 speaker, next down is the 75A4 receiver, next is the KWS-1 RF deck, and on the bottom of the pile is the KWS-1 power supply. The RF deck contains the exciter and power amplifier. The rf deck is approx 17" wide, 10.5" high, 15.5" deep, and weighs 50 pounds. The power supply measures 17"wide, 30" high, and 15.5"deep, and weighs 173 pounds. Total weight of the transmitter and power supply + receiver is close to 273 pounds, so you see why they call this old tube equipment "boatanchors".

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Last Update: 11/27/2020
Web Author: Scott Freeberg WA9WFA
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