[R-390] R-1051

Wed Jul 28 21:55:21 EDT 2004

That's good stuff Michael,

        Today the same failures are just as common.  I can't figure out why
an engineer would put all the parts they did inside the oven on that
Frequency Standard.  It bakes things that don't need to be baked....all at
85C.  I have seen many that the oven has run away and melted the solder on
the back side of the 5MC board killing the radio.  I have also repaired many
with damaged contacts in the Turret assembly.  Fortunately the contact
material has a high silver content and is very forgiving to straightening.

Very different radio...as radio's go!

Cecil....
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Murphy" <mjmurphy45 at comcast.net>
To: "Steve Hobensack" <stevehobensack at hotmail.com>; <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: [R-390] R-1051

> 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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