[R-390] TUBES

[Todd Bigelow - PS]

Mike -

Not a story, but fact. It's not to say that all the Harris gear went
down, but some did, as well as other gear. Not only did they have to
ship some R-390As in but they also asked for a load of KWM2-As.
Somewhere I have the information in writing. Seems the static was only
part of the problem, the sand over there is almost like dust and did
well at clogging filters and other nice gremlin-type stunts.

I almost think ER had an article in it at one point shortly after the
Gulf War...

de Todd/'Boomer'  KA1KAQ

Mike Melland wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Feb 2002 13:30:36 -0500
>
>   Roy Morgan <roy.morgan@nist.gov> wrote:
> >At 12:26 PM 2/15/02 -0600, Mike O'Brien wrote:
> >>In the dim recesses of my fading memory, I seem to recall
> >>plans
> >>announced about five years ago by Western Electric
>
> All this talk of tubes had me thinking over noon.  I just
> returned from lunch with the LTC that is the commander of
> our regional ROTC units based here at the college I work
> at.  Earlier I learned he was a "signals" officer and he's
> been very helpful scrounging parts for me for various
> receivers, including my R-390A.  I asked about the
> military supply of vacuum tubes and he tells me that they
> had a warehouse full of new tubes at the last base he was
> assigned to two years ago.  He informed me that many of
> the tubes were routinely surplussed as they got older and
> rotated with fresh stock. He informs me that many of the
> current tubes in US Army stock were made by Philips in
> Germany.  Must be NATO purchases ??? Interestingly he was
> in the Gulf and actually had to request R-390A's be sent
> there from Germany.  Apparent;ly according to him some of
> their sofisticated receivers had trouble with static
> damage due to charges from all the blowing sand ??? I
> don't know if he's kidding me or not on that..... but he
> sure is familiar with the R-390A for a guy that entered
> service probably in the late 1970's or early 80's.
>
> Mike