K4OZY's Collins Repository

NOS Mica Capacitors: Use or Not?

Gaylord Hart's account of his testing of NOS "domino" capacitors.

Collins R-627/URC-8 Receiver

Please give me a hand digging up information on a most unusual Collins receiver, the R-627/URC-8

Collins 30K Transmitters

At this point, 2 30K-1's and a 30K-2 have followed me home. Click here to take a tour

Collins R-388 / 51J-(x) Receivers

Early 51J-2 Receiver with 70E7-A PTO
- Complete 51J-2 Manual, scan of Xerox (200 DPI, PDF, 6MB)
- 51J-2 Schematic (300 DPI, PDF, 350KB)
Later 51J-2 Receiver with 70E-15 PTO
- Complete 51J-2 Manual (300 DPI, PDF, 17.5MB)
- 51J-2 Schematic (600 DPI, PDF, 1.8MB)
51J-3 Receiver
- 51J-3 Manual (8/16/51), Sections 1 - 4 (200 DPI, PDF, 4.1MB)
- 51J-3 Manual (8/16/51), Section 5 (200 DPI, PDF, 3.5MB)
- 51J-3 Manual (8/16/51), Section 6-7 (200 DPI, PDF, 2.7MB)
- Will post schematics here asap..
R-388 Receiver (Nearly identical to 51J-3)
- Note that this manual is worthwhile even if you already have a 51J-3 manual, as it has more info and is more complete. Be sure to download and read the 4 "changes" to the TM, as they contain useful information and clarification of the alignment proceedure!
- R-388/URR Manual (TM 11-854) Part 1 (200 DPI, PDF, 8.7MB)
- R-388/URR Manual (TM 11-854) Part 2 (200 DPI (300 DPI for certain illustrations), PDF, 9.6MB)
- R-388/URR Schematic (From TM 11-854) (300 DPI 2 x 8.5x11 pages, PDF, 0.6MB)
- R-388/URR Schematic (From TM 11-854) (600 DPI single 11x17 scan, PDF, 2.5MB)
- Changes No. 1 to TM 11-854, dated 4/54 (300 DPI, PDF, 0.6MB)
- Changes No. 2 to TM 11-854, dated 11/55 (300 DPI, PDF, 0.8MB)
- Changes No. 3 to TM 11-854 (dated 5/24/57, with many thanks to Bob AC0JL!)
- Changes No. 4 to TM 11-854 (dated 11/25/63, with many thanks to Bob AC0JL!)
354A-1 Mechanical Filter Conversion Kit
- Full Manual (300 DPI, PDF, 4MB, Scan of Xerox)
51J-4 Receiver
51J-4 Receiver, 9th Edition (September 1961)
Very late edition of the 51J-4 manual--may be the last.
Bill Kirkland's Notes on the 51J Gearbox
- Bill's Notes, Rev 1, PDF
Bill Kirkland's 51J Drum, Dial, and PTO Decals
Here's Bill's artwork for the KC dial on a 51J receiver:
- Bill's Artwork for the 51J KC Dial, PDF
And, here's Bill's newly released versions of the 51J Dial Drum overlays. There are two, one on a yellow background, one on white (some owners prefer yellow because it's a close match to the way the drums look after 60 years of aging!). Bill offers the following advice on installation:
Printing and Trimming
- It's best to print the overalys out in photo-quality mode on low-cost photo-quality matte paper.
- Spray with an artist fixative to provide a protective coating.
- Trim the prints to size using a sharp knife and steel rule. The width of the border is set to the width of the drum, less the end disks. This is wider than the original but the extra width makes it easier to align on the drum.
- The vertical borders are a good start, but the overlay will need to be trimmed more. This is best done by trial fitting the overlay and trimming as needed. I would recommend not allowing the edges to overlap.
Drum Prep
- Check the overlay alignment/position across the bands. There are 30 band positions; it is not unusual to see an offset, and it is best to be aware of this offset before replacing the overlay.
- The offset is likely due to slight differences in drum diameter and possibly thickness of the drum cord.
- Once the overlay has been trimmed, check its alignment with the present drum decal.
- If you think the position offset is going to be significant compared to what it was before, contact Bill Kirkland: he can alter the size of the overlay and send you a new PDF.
- Strip off the old drum decal, especially if it is flaking or there are uneven patches. These will show through the new overlay, and must be removed.
- Once the overlay has been readied, coat the back with a 3M spray adhesive. It is sticky stuff, so do a couple of dry runs for laying the overlay onto the drum, before applying adhesive.
Here're the drum overlays:
Bill has been a busy boy.. he's now created a PDF for the 70E-15 PTO orange decal that always seems to be missing or torn. You can edit this decal before printing, to insert your very own serial number!
- Bill's artwork for the late 51J 70E-15 PTO
Tom Frobase's Solid-State Recitifier for the 51J Receivers
- N3LLL's Notes on the 51J Solid State Rectifier Replacement

Collins 30J-Series Transmitters

Thanks much to Rod Perala for sharing these docs!

30K-1 Transmitter

Revision 2
Revision 3
Revision 4
I have a full manual for this revision, but haven't yet scanned it for a stupid technical reason. Will get to it asap.
- 310A-1 Schematic, (300 DPI, PDF, 0.25MB)

30K-2 Transmitter

30K-2 Manual Scan, with many thanks to Hap, W3UPV!

30K-5 Transmitter

30K-5 Manual December 1, 1955 (400 DPI, PDF, 57.0MB)

310B Exciters

310B-1/3
- 310B-1/3 Manual (200 DPI, PDF, 3.0MB)
- 310B-1/3 Schematic (300 DPI, 2pgs, 11x17, PDF, 0.8MB)

310C Exciters

310C Manual, with many thanks to Hap, W3UPV!

32RA Transmitters

32RA-7 Transmitter
- 32RA Model 7 (32RA-7) Manual (200 DPI, PDF, 6.1MB)
- 32RA Model 7 (32RA-7) Schematic (300 DPI, 11x17 PDF, 0.6MB)
32RA-8 Transmitter
- 32RA Model 8 (32RA-8) Schematic (300 DPI, 11x17 PDF, 0.4MB)

32V Transmitters

75A Receivers

S-Line Equipment

The document "Discussion of Collins Developed Noise Blankers.." was kindly provided to me by Tom Anderson WW5L. Unfortunately it has no author or date. The copy I received wasn't that great, so I typed it up as an HTML and added the block diagram of the 136B in the appropriate place.

136B Noise Limiter
- Discussion of Collins Developed Noise Blankers for the KWM-1, 75A-4, and 75S-1 Amateur Receivers
- 136B Noise Blanker Manual (200 DPI, PDF, 2.3MB)
516F-2 Power Supply

62S-1 VHF Converter

62S-1 Manual, 3rd Ed. 8/15/63 (PDF, 23.3MB)

651S-1 Information

These service bulletins kindly provided by Marvin Moss:

Collins Mechanical Filter Catalog

Collins Bulletin 1031A, Mechanical Filters (200 DPI, Color PDF, 4.7MB)

Collins Quality Standards Manual

This manual was used internally at Collins Radio to specify the standards of workmanship to be used in their equipment. It contains all sorts of useful information including, but by no means limited to:

Cable lacing techniques, and the "Collins knot"
Fastener types and their proper use
How to solder and weld
How to read a huge variety of color coded components
...and much, much more.

The following 2-part scan includes pages 22/23, which were irritatingly missing from my eariler scan. Sorry about that!