AM Room

This room presents many of the AM modulation Broadcast and Amateur Radio products from Collins Radio. The room features a restored late 50s to mid 60s AM broadcast studio (OP 10) with 20V-2 and 20V-3 transmitters. This includes Buck Owens’ original 212F-1 mixer and his audio processing rack from his first Bakersfield AM station, KUZZ, which he purchased in 1966. Buck Owens’ early studio equipment is again completely functional and on-the-air.

Also in operation are other examples of amateur and commercial AM HF Comm equipment such as the rare 32RS-1 (AM) 4 Channel HF Transceiver (OP 9) and a complete vintage 32V-1 (Serial # 1) and 75A-1 (NIB 7 years ago)/302C-1 and speaker display (Op 8).

There is also a 30K-5/R-390/212Z HF AM (OP 11) position adjacent to this studio in the Entertainment Room. This historic HF ground control air traffic equipment was recently used to make the first airborne contact with the restored radio room in the world’s only flying B-29 bomber. It, of course, was using a restored Collins ART-13 auto-tune transmitter.

The AM room also houses a rack of early commercial Collins AM HF equipment as well as a separate display of Aerospace Equipment spanning the early X-15, through Mercury and Gemini up to the Apollo Programs. Operation in the AM room(s) is mostly focused on 160 through 40 meters but complete AM coverage up through 10 meters is available.

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