[R-390] New R-392 owner

Sun, 2 Jun 2002 16:38:29 -0400

My experience -- though not as lengthy -- agrees with Meir's.  I have 5 or 6
R-392's.  (One or two are usually hiding somewhere.)  Maybe needed some
tubes on initial delivery, some not at all.

There may be a tendency to "under-do" with these -- or maybe it's just me.
Anyway, I finally got around to aligning a couple of them both of which
seemed to be working OK.  Quite a difference.  Josh Rovero had a performance
comparison between the R-390 and R-392 on his website but none of the links
seem to work anymore.  As I recall, they were very close.  The biggest
factor in actual use may be the more limited choice of bandwidths.

In one area, the R-392 wins hands down against all:  Operation while
submerged.  Not to mention that it floats.  (but panel side down, so bring
your goggles and a a snorkel with an extension on it.)

When water resistance is not an issue, it may be advisable to run the radio
either without its case, or at least slipped out of it about an inch for
ventilation.  Please don't drill any holes.

Barry

> Andy,
>
> As a long-time owner of 3 R-392's (I've owned one of them for about 18
> years, never had to change even one tube in it), I can tell you that
they're
> basically plug-and-play, unless a previous owner did mess it up... Due to
> the low voltages used in it, (24-28VDC) the components suffer  much less
> "wear and tear" than the R-390(and A) models. I never experienced any
> shorted capacitors or way out resistor values in them.
> Performance-wise, the R-392 is a little less sensitive than the R-390 (or
> A).
> As to "nothing in the universe is as sensitive as the R-390/A", this is
not
> quite true. I have 3 German receivers of the same general vintage as the
> R-390/A (1950's and 60's), each of them has better sensitivity according
to
> their original specifications, than the R-390/A. They are the Rohde &
> Schwarz EK-07, the Siemens  E309a and the Siemens E311b.
> The increased sensitivity of the R-390/A is achieved by individually
> tweaking the receivers and selecting tubes (there is an article regarding
> those measurements and how the results were achieved).
> The R-392 has a very decent performance and I use it a lot on the ham
bands
> (in conjunction with its matching transmitter, the T-195), as well as for
> some short-wave listening.
>
> Good luck with yours and enjoy it.
>
> 73, Meir WF2U
>
> Landrum, SC
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]  On
> Behalf Of James A. (Andy) Moorer
> Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 2:43 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [R-390] New R-392 owner
>
> I just acquired an R-392 that is claimed to be working.
>
> Is there a "must replace" list for the R-392?
> I know for the R-390A, there are certain capacitors that you replace on
> sight before you power up the unit. Does the R-392 have any such that I
> should know about?
>
> I understand that nothing in the universe is as sensitive as the R-390/A,
> what kind of performance should I expect from the R-392? Is it at least
> comparable?
>
> Thanks folks.
>
>
> --
> James A. (Andy) Moorer
> Adobe Systems
>
>
>
>
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