[R-390] Please spare us

[Bill Levy]

   I would like to second Roger.
    In the world in which we live, the A and B models are improvements.The 
Pommies call is the MK 2 and the MK3
    It doesn't matter if it has more tubes or less tubes. A is better than 
non A.
    B is even better.
    The KWM-1 was in Francis Gary Powers U2 that got shot down. The KWM2a 
suitcase was in every Embassy and all over Vietnam and the Mars bases. The 
KWM380 was an improvement.
    You want to argue? Go ahead and nitpick. You can't prove the existance 
of God either.
    Doesn't matter to me. Its called progress even if we are luddites and 
the world was better when we were 18 and we had 3 girls as our roommates and 
one was our lover and the other two could cook! Of course it was better THEN 
but then is a moving target!

    Good as Roger says is good enough! When it breaks its a piece of crap.

    So say I,  Bill N2WL


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com>
To: <R-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 7:46 PM
Subject: Re: [R-390] Please spare us


> Fellows,
>
>>From my military education, by 1950, Post W.W.II our military was moving 
>>away
> from dits. RTTY imposed a level of "security" on our communications, You 
> just
> were not going to copy RTTY by ear with a stick in hand. So the R390 was 
> just
> great
> for that RTTY use. The linear PTO let you deal with drift and other facets 
> of
> radio reception.
>
> Post W.W.II the Spooks were closed down, we did not need to listen to any 
> one
> except our commanding officers. And you did not need a radio to do that.
>
> The rest of the world just was not up to RTTY, so they still used a lot of
> dits.
> Once it occurred to the command that we may like to receive the dits or
> others, the spooks were stuck with the existing hardware. Spooks never got 
> to pick
> their receiver with an essay question test. The spook choices were do you 
> want
> these or not?
>
> A lot of communications were still dits, even if the official line was we 
> do
> RTTY.
>
> While the signal corp used lots of R390 or R390/A for long haul
> communications,
> short haul was done on telephone lines. Most of the com work was via a 
> RTTY
> link. And spooks were using the only stock military receiver available in
> production
> to copy dits. The spooks could buy any radio in the warehouse with a 
> military
> stock number. We were not calling it a NSN yet. By the late 50's when 
> spooks
> got to radios in a big way, there were very few choices on the shelf to be
> acquired by the
> hundreds being requested. So more R390 and Later R390/A receivers were
> built just for spooks. Never mine that the receiver was a poor spook
> receiver. It
> was what was in stock and in production. End of story solider, go listen 
> to
> your
> receiver and get those dits. Its a receiver good enough for the military
> brass
> and its good enough for you. How dare you even think the military brass 
> has
> not
> provided you the best receiver money could buy. Troops were told the 
> R390/A
> was an improved receiver, not a cost reduced receiver.
>
> While the spooks done lots of dit intercept on the R390 and R390/A the
> military
> never considered the receiver a ditty catcher. They also did not consider 
> it
> an
> Arm Forces Radio catcher or a SSB catcher either.
>
> What management was thinking when the receiver were being designed and
> purchased had no relation to how they were to actually be used over the
> next 40 plus years of their life. That is not what management expected to
> happen
> but then reality bits every one now and then. And reality rules.
>
> Roger KC6TRU
>
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