W9GOB Dan in Palos Park, IL

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Click Play Button to listen to the 400-cycle blowers coming up from a cold start on the 618T Collins.

I first saw the 618T when I was a radio man for Braniff Airlines -- each B 727 had two. On the night shift, I would fire one up and talk to hams on 20 meters right from the cockpit while sitting on the hangar ramp. Years later, I became a pilot for ATA and we used the 618T's on every Atlantic crossing to report our position at each way point on the [L-1011] I was able to find one on eBay, a dash-3 618T the dash three only needs about 30 amps of D.C. and has a built in 400 cycle ac inverter to power the fan and frequency motors etc. Below are a pictures with sides open a picture of the PA module [two 4cx250's ] my homebrew control panel using the cockpit control box. I only had to add line level mic audio and I run the RX audio to computer speakers or earphones. In order to make operation simple, I use a Hammarlund 212 to sweep the ham bands and then reset the 618 to the stations I find on the Hammarlund. and simply switch the rx audio from Hammarlund to 618T audio. I have yet to find the auto-tuner for the 618t as used on the aircraft installations, so I use a Butternut all band vertical. I don't have to do any tuning then. Also, there is a picture of the gray Collins control unit that was used with the 618t's when they were in Vietnam service on Jeeps.

 

This looks like some sort of military test set connected to the Collins 618T transceiver This is the heavy Collins 618T transceiver sitting on a couple of saw-horses . It is quite long but only about a foot wide and a foot tall.
Photo of the digital control head that connects to the transceiver
Close-up of the side of the transceiver with the cover removed.
Photo of control heads used for jeep use.