Watkins-Johnson info site

This page contains historical information on the radio equipment designed and manufactured in the Gaithersburg plant of Watkins-Johnson, the Bethesda plant of Communication Electronics, Inc and the Rockville plant, which produced equipment under both names.

This site is not affiliated in any way with the Watkins-Johnson company or DRS Technologies, the present owners of the Gaithersburg facility.

It is with deep regret I inform you this website is no longer freely updated. I have tons of new material but plagarism from the internet has become too rampant. For a private individual, copyrights are essentially unenforceable.

This site comes from twenty years of work. I have too much invested to put my work where it is so easily stolen. I invite linking to this site because I retain authorship and control of my work. Any other use destroys my connection to the work. Therefore, I have changed course and will add new material only after it has been issued in print elsewhere. My apologizes for inconveniencing those of you who are honest readers.

Pop Comm June 2008

See the June 2008 issue of Popular Communications magazine for a history of the infamous Watergate radio, the Comunication Electronics RS-111. This radio was at the center of the activities that eventually caused the resignation of US President Richard M. Nixon.

The story goes behind and the beyond the existing historical record. It includes new information from sources directly connected with the radio and its sale to James McCord.

It also includes many insights on the company, the design and construction of their equipment and the nature of the surveillance radio business.

Receivers
& Tuners

Surveillance Systems

Signal
Monitors

Accessories

WJ History

Catalogs

Document Index

Service Work	Manuals
Who am I?	Additional Reading

This is a public window to my ongoing research into Watkins-Johnson and the
history of American telemetry and surveillance equipment (COMINT, SIGINT and ELINT).

If you worked for Clarke Instruments, Nems-Clarke, Defense Electronics, Inc,
Communications Electronics, Inc, Watkins Johnson, Astro Communications Labs,
Aiken, Norlin, General Electronics Laboratories, Ling Temco Vought or Regco,
or if you worked for a Watkins-Johnson subsidiary, acquisition, spin off or competitor,
please contact me: watkins-johnson at terryo dot org.

If you have any catalogs, sales literature, company newsletters, manuals or other documentation, please contact me: watkins-johnson at terryo dot org.

I do not sell or broker equipment, manuals or service work.
I am not a clearinghouse for information or documentation.
Most of this equipment is rare and documentation and/or software is even more rare.
Please do not be offended if I do not respond to your e-mail.
I receive many requests, often with apologies and pleas of desperation.

For documentation or help, please try the folks
on the manuals and service work pages.

This site is also gathering size and becoming unwieldy to edit.
If you see anything wrong or find any broken links, please let me know.

Contact me at watkins-johnson at terryo dot org