[R-390] Rolling your own R-390A

[Tim Shoppa]

> have a look at the score card for  some of the
> bits based on what is  coming out of the auction site in recent times.
> Do the additions on recent sales... a pair of  meters $240, an IF
> module $230 a set of knobs $60 and if you're really pressed for the
> aesthetics, a front panel $300.

I know that at least one of the sales you are talking about fell through
because the buyer thought he was getting a complete R-390A when
the auction was only for a single assembly.

And their is a certain satisfaction to doing the "one piece at a time"
(acknowledgments to Johnny Cash) approach, taking pieces and
making them whole, that goes beyond any cash value.

But that said... I saw a guy selling all the parts necessary to build
a R-390A but disassembled to the most ridiculous level a few weeks
ago.  All were claimed to be from the same working EAC serial
number unit.  It was truly sad... one auction was all the gears.
Another was all the gear clamps.  Another auction was the slug racks.
One was the IF module minus filters.  Four more for the filters.
Another for the antenna relay.  Another
for the stripped chassis.  Another for the side plates.  Another
for the back plate. etc.

Other auctions this seller had was a disassembled HW-101 in
22 different auctions.  One for the dial, one for the front panel, one
for the knobs, exactly the same pattern.

This seller seems to have high feedback and unfortunately
seems to make more money selling the parts individually from
known working radios.  (The parts from the stripped HW-101
sold for 3 or 4 times what a whole functional radio commonly
goes for!)

Not that I have deep emotional attachments to any particular
radio, but when bags of parts have more value than a whole
working rig then something has gone wrong.  And I do have
attachments to R-390A's and HW-100's going back several
decades, so I'm not completely impartial.

I have nothing against trading around/selling parts and modules
(modules especially makes sense for the R-390A) and "parts
radios" to keep old rigs on the air.  It's just the senseless
destruction of working rigs because you can make bigger bucks
by doing so that bothers me.

It doesn't seem quite so bad when it's a wholesale surplus
dealer doing similar (but probably not identical, I'd like to
believe that the parts come from otherwise unrestorable units)
things.  Don't ask me why.  Maybe it's the decades I've spent
looking at their Dymo-labeled catalogs!  And maybe it's because
deep inside I believe that they're doing a real service by making
individual parts available (as opposed to "all the gears in a
baggie".)

OK, that's my little rant for the morning.  Time to go take
my blood pressure pill to keep that vein in my forehead from
popping out!

Tim.