[R-390] Fair Radio R-390A Question?

[Jim Temple]

I recently restored a Fair Radio bought R-390A.  I bought the Repairable
version without the meters.  It was quite beat up, but it did light up when
received.

To make a long story short, the overriding obstacle to overcome was
corrosion at the grounding points.  Just tightening the tube attachment
points sometimes works, but in many instances, the attachment point needs to
be disassembled and properly cleaned.  My version, also, has a thin coating
of some kind of shellac underneath the RF deck.  After many hours of
cleaning and tightening above deck screws, I finally discovered that the can
attachment post of one of the transformers, UNDERNEATH the RF deck was loose
and sitting on top of the shellac coat.  This ground attach point was not
available on top of the deck, so I was overlooking it.  Another significant,
and long, fix was finding a corroded solder joint.

My point is that of all the hours I spent in restoring this R-390A, only one
fix was associated with a component failure.  All the rest were in fixing
corroded solder joints and corroded ground points.

One other suggestion is to go to Chuck Ripples site and check out the
"common failures" section.  The only capacitor that I found to be bad was in
the list mentioned in this article.  I would seriously consider shotgunning
the replacement of the mentioned capacitors.  I eventually did.

This list is a great resource, and when they are bored, might make a
hurculean effort to get you over a particularly sticky problem.  Thanks,
guys.

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronald Davis" <RDavis24@carolina.rr.com>
To: <r-390@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 11:58 PM
Subject: [R-390] Fair Radio R-390A Question?


> Hello
> First,thanks to all who helped with my first post to the list. I have
> already learned alot from the great folks on this list. My question now
is,
> that I do not have enough money to buy the Rebuild R-390A that I want so
my
> next choice is to buy one from Fair Radio or a group members Fair Radio
> R-390A and try to do all the work myself. Since I am a true beginner, I
> would like the groups advice on doing this? Is it possible for me to buy
the
> video and by using it and the field manuals restore the rig myself? I
would
> like to have a nice summer project that I could enjoy and this seems like
a
> good project, also I think I would learn alot in the end. One problem I
have
> here is that besides being a complete beginner, im a poor man also hi, so
> the do it myself thing is probably what I will have to do. I have a great
> desire to learn this rig and to make a great receiver better by doing a
> complete rebuild, I am just wondering if this is too complex of a rig to
> start with. Should I hold out for a rig that I can see before I buy or
take
> a chance? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks
> Ronnie
> KE4VPN
>
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