[R-390] R-1051

[Michael Murphy]

Steve,

When going to college at Rochester Institute of Technology, I had to obtain
and hold (or at least try in a very tight 1978 economy) a Co-op job every
other quarter for three years. My first job was a bust, cutting out chassis
all day for test fixtures (similar to Grundig story) which were used a Xerox
and Kodak, Rochester's two largest employers at the time. Co-op student =
slave.

My second job was a better one where I actually got to work on the bench and
test and trouble shoot radio gear (as a young ham was eager to do). It turns
out that the "start up" was a company that repaired a very specific type of
radio for the military. Why? Because nobody else wanted to touch them
because they were apparently too difficult to service.

FYI - The Albacore Sub (nearby in Portsmouth NH) used this gear, which was
considered state of the art in 1961.
http://www.k1uq.com/restoration_story.htm

It turned out that the boss was a former General Dynamics engineer, and he
felt confident enough to work on these blasted things. We also had another
advantage, we had the complete microfiche set of drawings for the R1051
radios and all known variants. Strangely, I never worked on the R1051, but I
sure had some experience on its brothers and sisters, the including the
RT-618 Transceiver, T-827 AN/URT-23 transmit only variant and the AM3007
Amplifier. I also worked on a few GR-106's. All of these wonders came out of
a General Dynamics design in the late 1950's.

What we did at Radionics Inc. was repair/replace/certify radios to 100%
specifications. It is important to understand that these radios were
considered to be long obsolete by by the original manufacturers by 1978!
Anyway, all refurbished radios were inspected by a government source
inspector, who hovered over the lucky techs shoulder. We fabricated all
parts that we could not refurbish. Trucks full of surplus radios (won on
bid) would show up from time to time and we used these as boneyard parts. We
stripped panels, sent them out for paint, and re-did lettering. The carousel
tuning sections were our specialty. We actually made these from scratch
including winding and cooking coils. The most common failure in these radios
was a mis alignment of the carousel contacts and the complete or partial
destruction of the assembly. Another common failure was the 500 kHz master
oscillator heater which would run away and cook everything. We rebuilt these
and sent them out for NBS calibration before replacing them in the radio.

We also built some custom gear; a VLF rack mount unit which up-converted
100 - 2000 KHz to 5 MHz, if I remember correctly. This unit matched the
R-1051.

Thank God I am beginning to forget everything. I have never been tempted to
look inside another one of these.

Mike WB2UID




----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Hobensack" <stevehobensack at hotmail.com>
To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 8:28 AM
Subject: RE: [R-390] R-1051


> I use an R-1051b as an auxilary rx in the ham shack. When changing bands,
is
> it better to move the mode switch to the standby position, before changing
> bands (mhz)? The motor doesn't start and stop as much, but it puts more
> ware/tare on the mode switch. Is there a better procedure for changing
> bands?
> ..Steve..KJ8L
>
>
> >From: "Walter Schulz" <k3oqf at localnet.com>
> >To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
> >Subject: [R-390] R-1051
> >Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 22:25:37 -0400
> >
> >Gentleman;
> >Some thoughts about the R-1051 from ex RM who served in the mid 1960's.
In
> >radio central onboard essex class aircraft we had a number R-1051's
beside
> >the R-390A's. We used the R-1051 for ISB or USB and LSB to receive MUX
> >(Multiplex) radioteletype. The R-1051 was very stable but was always
> >failing due to heat, the heat in the radio room was always about 90 to
100
> >degrees F with A/C running.
> >
> >The transistors could not take the constant temperature off Vietnam. The
> >receivers keep failing daily where the R-390A's kept working. R-390A was
> >good on SSB without the adapter when receiving MUX. Also they were
> >excellent for receiving regular radioteletype transmission with 850
cycles
> >shift.
> >
> >The R-1051 is knob twister delight and far as I am concerned it should be
> >deep six. However, when it is working its good. It either good or darn
> >bad....so much for my opinion....which stems back to my days in radio
> >central of yesterday years.
> >
> >Rgds,
> >Walter
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