[R-390] Black faced R-390A's

[JMILLER1706 at cfl.rr.com]

Why not strip 'em down to bare metal and then polish to match 
the "billet aluminum" look of your Harley?

----- Original Message -----
From: Cecil Acuff <chacuff at cableone.net>
Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 12:14 pm
Subject: Re: [R-390] Black faced R-390A's

> This is a stretch but wasn't a black NOS Military cabinet (CY-
> 979?) sold 
> recently on Ebay? (sold for like a gazillion dollars) Why would 
> the military 
> have black cabinets in stock if they didn't have black faced radio's?
> 
> Just a thought...
> 
> Cecil...
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bob Camp" <ham at cq.nu>
> To: "Les Locklear" <Llgpt at aol.com>
> Cc: <r390a at bellsouth.net>; <chacuff at cableone.net>; <R-
> 390 at mailman.qth.net>Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 7:18 AM
> Subject: Re: [R-390] Yet another Black Panel '390A on the 'bay
> 
> 
> > Hi
> >
> > This is more in the line of an interesting story than hard data.
> >
> > The R390's and 390A's from Motorola were made at the Augusta 
> Boulevard 
> > plant in Chicago. That plant was long gone from the Motorola 
> empire by the 
> > time I got there but the stories lived on.
> >
> > Like a lot of factories in that era pretty much everything was 
> done on 
> > site. They did painting in house. Repainting equipment carts to 
> your 
> > department's colors was a favorite night time sport. They would 
> paint 
> > anything any color 24 hours a day ....
> >
> > Since they did the front panels in house varying the color would 
> have been 
> > easy. I have also seen evidence that they repainted front panels 
> on new 
> > radios in production. It's very likely that they repainted 
> panels as a 
> > repair process.
> >
> > I find the theory that they painted some of the production 
> radios black 
> > plausible. I have yet to see evidence that it happened as a 
> "painted that 
> > way new" process rather than a repaint later in life. There is 
> evidence of 
> > white panel and light blue panel radios out there. The same 
> thing applies 
> > to them. They certainly existed in military service. How they 
> got that way 
> > nobody seems to know.
> >
> > Enjoy!
> >
> > Bob Camp
> > KB8TQ
> >
> >
> >
> > On Apr 19, 2005, at 11:20 PM, Llgpt at aol.com wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Several ex-operators who worked for the NSA in various 
> capacities while
> >> still attached to the United States Naval Security Group (in 
> various 
> >> locations)
> >> would tell us different. Another friend who worked for Motorola 
> at Wright
> >> Patterson said that they (Motorola) made up a batch of fifty 
> for the USN. 
> >> If you
> >> have ever been aboard ship at night and tried to see the front 
> panel 
> >> detail
> >> with  red night lanterns will know what I'm talking about. The 
> claim was 
> >> the
> >> black  panel with the white engravings/silk-screen provided a 
> much better
> >> contrast.  Howard Mills has what sure appears to be an original 
> black 
> >> front panel.
> >> I've  seen several myself.
> >>
> >> For the non-believers, be careful of strange visitors.............
> >>
> >> Les Locklear
> >>
> >>
> >> In a message dated 4/19/2005 10:08:30 PM Central Daylight Time,
> >> chacuff at cableone.net writes:
> >>
> >> Well his  text states there is no documentation that black 
> faced R-390A's
> >> were ever  manufactured.  I thought there was.....Where's Les!
> >>
> >> It looks like  a demilled radio to me.  Missing meters.  
> Missing tag. 
> >> Who
> >> knows.  Bet it still goes for over  1K....
> >>
> >> Cecil...
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >
> > 
> 
> 
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