This is the Continental Electronics Section of
The Broadcast Archive
Maintained by:
Barry Mishkind - The Eclectic Engineer
Last Update 2/2/05
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Continental Electronics Dallas, Texas Phone: (800) 733-5011 |
(See also the COLLINS RADIO page).
Continental Electronics was founded by James O. Weldon in 1946, as a spin-off of the consulting firm of Weldon & Carr, to build High Power AM transmitters (including XERA's 500 kW unit for Dr. Brinkley), and custom AM phasors under contract for Western Electric. When the FTC "broke up" AT&T's broadcast group in 1953, the AM transmitter line went to Continental Electronics Manufacturing Company (CEMCO). (The FM went to Standard Electronics, and the audio line to Altec).
Over the years, Continental developed a reputation for quality and reliability that was hard to match by any other manufacturer. Transmitters in the multi-Megawatt range as well as frequency agile shortwave transmitters (capable of being preset and rapidly re-tuned for up to 10 frequencies) were a signature product.
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James O. Weldon |
This tube was one of a set of eight used in an early Weldon transmitter built for XERA, one of the Mexican Border Blasters. Click on the picture for a larger view, and some specifications. |
Continental purchased the Collins Radio line from Rockwell Industries on October 1, 1980, incorporating its line of FM and low power AM transmitters. It was then itself purchased by Varian in 1985, and Tech-Sym Corporation (TSY) in 1990. In November 2003, Continental Electronics became a division of DRS, a defense contractor. It was purchased in 2005 by ... and the company name restored to Continental Electronics.
AM Transmitters
(See Dave Hultsman's explanation for the numbering system, below!)
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| 101 - 50 kW - The 101 was Continental's 50 kW version of the just acquired Western Electric line. Apparently only one was built, as backup to XERA. It was eventually installed at WINQ, Tampa. |
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| D219 - 600 kW (1988) | |||
| 312 - 250
W (earlyy 1960s?) First unit to WHDF (1400), Houghton, MI |
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| 312T - 300
W First unit to WVRM (1010), Savannah, GA |
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| 313D - 500 W First unit to Emissora Provincial, Bissau, Guinea |
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314-2 - 1 kW Series First unit to AFRS (611) Kaiserslauten, Germany 314-C - 1 kW First unit to Radio Reloj (1330) Maracaibo, Venezuela 314R-1 - 1 kW First unit to KPBC (1040), Dallas, TX 314 - 1 kW 314T - 1 kW - Solid StateFirst unit to KICO (1490), Calexico, CA |
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315 - 5 kW Series First unit to KHYM (1060), Gilmer, TX 315B - 5 kW First unit to WMAK (1300), Nashville, TN 315F - 5 kW First unit to KGER (1390), Long Beach, CA 315T - 5 kW - Solid
State (1995) |
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316 - 10 kW Series First unit to CHLN (550 kHz) Trois-Rivieres, Canada Pictured: KRLA, Pasadena ... The difference between the 315 and the 316 was the output tube and voltage. 316B - 10 kW First unit to XERC (790 kHz), D.F., Mexico 316F - 10 kW First unit to WHOO (990 kHz), Orlando, FL 316T - 10 kW -
Solid state. Original model name: XL310 |
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317 - 50 kW Series | ||
| 318A - 100 kW
(1964) First unit (900 kHz) to BCC, Taipei, Taiwan. |
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318.5A - 150
kW (1973) First unit (s/n 2) to XEROK (800), Juarez, Mexico. |
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| 319 - 250 kW | |||
| 319B - 250
kW (1968) First unit (810 kHz) to Radio Sutatenza, Bogota, Colombia also D, E models. |
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| 319G - 300 kW
(1992) First unit (900 kHz) to CBS, Taipei, Taiwan. |
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| 320 - 500 kW (1963) | |||
| 320F - 1,000 kW (1979) | |||
| 320H - 600 kW
(1992) First unit (540 kHz) to MOI, Kuwait. |
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| D219 - 2,000 kW (1974) | |||
| D318A - 200
kW (1967) First unit to VOF, Hue, Vietnam. |
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| D323A - 2,000
kW (1974) First unit (683 kHz) to Radio-TV Belgrade, Yugoslavia |
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| D323C - 2,000 kW
(1979) First unit (1440 kHz) to MOI, Dammam, Saudi Arabia |
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FM Transmitters
Clay Freinwald shares his plans for modifying the air filters for the 816 series.
How about the different color schemes?
Since they all look alike,
Rockwell Collins CE
Continental
Varian
DRS
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| 813A - .5 kW First unit to KJVS (88.3), Cincinnati, OH |
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| 814D - 1 kW First unit to KAFE (104.3), Bellingham, WA 814H - 1 kW First unit to XHRJ (92.5), Toluca, Mexico 814R-1 - 2.5
kW First unit to KYKY (98.1), St. Louis, MO 814J - 3.8
kW First unit to WJER (101.7), Dover, OH |
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| 815A - 5
kW First unit to WCSF (96.7), Clifton Park, NY 815B - 5
kW |
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| 816 Series | |
| D816R-2C - 40 kW First unit to WRFX (99.7), Charlotte, NC D816R-3C - 50 kW First unit to KQKQ (98.5), Omaha, NE D816R-5C - 70 kW |
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817A - 40 to 70
kW - May 1988 KQKQ (98.5), Omaha, NE This series of transmitters has a special story. Allen Sherrill tells the tale of life with a one tube 60 kW rig! |
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817B - 60 kW ... none were ever built. But here is an image provided by Walt Rice. |
| D817R-4C - 55 kW First unit to WAQQ (95.1), Charlotte, NC |
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2004:
In 2004, DRS Continental brought out their first new transmitter in years.
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815D5 - 5 kW solid state |
My sincere appreciation to Nelda Hendon, Carol d'Happert, Dan Dickey, Dave Hultsman and Dave Hershberger for their kind assistance in gathering much of the information and graphic content for this section.
Dave Hultsman writes:
The first digit indicated the band or service as follows:
1 - VLF 2 - LF 3 - MW (AM) 4 - HF (shortwave AM broadcast) 5 - ? 6 - HF (non-broadcast) 7 - UHF 8 - VHF (FM broadcast)
The second two digits indicate the "size" in terms of power. Powers above 50kW but less than 100kW would get a 17, so any FM transmitter from 50kW to 100kW from a single amplifier would be an 817 something.
I used to have a handy chart but lost it somewhere along the way. These are the most common power breakpoints from my "memory":
13 - 500W 14 - 1kW 15 - 5kW 16 - 10kW 17 - 50kW 18 - 100kW 19 - 250kW 20 - 500kW
The first change at Collins was the use of the name "The Rock" for the Model 820D-2, 1 kW. Which also evolved into the "Power Rock", 828E-1, 5 kW. which became the CE 315R-1.
Ask Walt Rice how he got a 1 kW AM designated the XL-301? It still had two numbers.
Any Continental transmitter with "R" means it came from Rockwell-Collins
Collins Continental
310-Z2 510-R FM Exciter
831-D2 814-R1 2.5 kW FM
831-F2 816R-1 10-11 kW.
831-G2 816R-2 20-21.5 kW.
831-G3 816R-3 25 kW.
831-H2 817R-2 40 kW.
831-H2C 817R-3 50 kW.
828-D1 314R-1 1 KW. AM
828-E1 315R-1 5 KW. AM
816R-2A,B,C 21.5 kw. - 816R-3A,B,C 25 kW. - 816R-4B,C 27.5 kW. - 816R-5B,C 35 kW. - 816R-6C 30 kW.
Also the use of the "D" designation started later at CE. the 40 kW. were 817R-2's, the 50 kW's. were 817R-3's and the 55 kW's. were 817R-4's.
All of the single tube transmitters sold with power levels from 33 kW. to 48 kW. were Model 817-A Transmitters of which as I recall there were 13 manufactured. All have since been returned and disassembled.
The 817-B, was a factory proto-type which was made from one of the units in stock by Ken Branton. The two similar cabinets were just 816R cavities installed within the cabinets and combined with a standard hybrid on the back. One power supply supplied both PA stages. It was configured to use two of the old reliable 4CX15000-A tubes instead of one of 4CX40,000G tubes.
None of these transmitter were sold.
What doesn't make any sense was the 310Z-2 being made a 510-R at Continental and the next generation exciter at CE was the 802-A which was at least consistent.
But according to Dan's note the put the 5 on it because they didn't know what to do.
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Peter H. writes:
The 317 number is from Western Electric Company.
I believe CE made 317s from WECo parts inventories, while the 317B and 317C were all CE.
