[R-390] RE: What Came After The R-390

Bob Camp ham at cq.nu
Sun May 15 17:53:50 EDT 2005 

Hi

The SRR's certainly did similar things compared to the R390's. I  
would call them contemporaries of rather than replacements for the  
R390. I certainly would bow to the knowledge of others if they know  
of R390's being pulled and replaced with SRR series radios.

     Enjoy!

         Bob Camp
         KB8TQ



On May 15, 2005, at 11:45 AM, Barry Hauser wrote:

> Bob (& list) ..
>
> What about the SRR-XX series of modular (submini tube) receivers?   
> They're Navy only and first came out a bit after the '390s, ahead  
> of the 1051's.
>
> Substantial overlap in usage of all three even though the first  
> R-390 came out in '51 and first 1051's in late 60's.  SRR's came  
> out somewhere in there in the early/mid 50's.  Can anybody clarify?
>
> Barry
>
>
>
> Bob wrote:
>
>
>> Hi
>>
>> We just went through a fairly detailed thread on this about three   
>> weeks ago. It should be fairly easy to find in the archives.
>>
>> The R390 radios are fairly unique. They were "front line" radios  
>> for  a long time. Unlike a lot of military gear they were used by  
>> all of  the services and many agencies. There are *very* few  
>> pieces of gear  of any type that have been as widely accepted.  
>> The .45 Colt pistol is  about the only item that comes to my mind.
>>
>> The R390 is fundamentally  a fixed location radio rather than a   
>> portable or strap it on a jeep mobile radio. The 390's were made  
>> in  enormous numbers considering the type of radio they are. No  
>> other  radio of this type has ever hit nearly the same production  
>> numbers.  No other radio of this type has been made by as many  
>> people for as  many years. Again it's a unique radio.
>>
>> Up to the point that the 390's came out each of the services came  
>> up  with their own radios. After the R390 to a great extent they  
>> went  back to the same pattern. There is a series of radios used  
>> by the  Marine Corps that is different than those used by the  
>> Navy. Navy  radios came from different suppliers and were designed  
>> differently  than Army radios. The Army and Air Force shared some  
>> gear but  generally issued different sets for the same basic  
>> missions.
>>
>> The agencies radio usage is even more obscure and complex than  
>> usage  by the services. The services could afford to design radios  
>> from  scratch. The agencies for the most part simply did not have  
>> a big  enough budget to do that sort of thing. Radios were  
>> designed targeted  at agency type requirements, but from the  
>> ground up for a given agency.
>>
>> The 390's were used in various missions from the early 1950's  
>> through  the early 1990's. For all we know they are still deployed  
>> somewhere  in the world by the US. Certainly the bulk of the usage  
>> was in the  late 1950's and 1960's. The 390A radios began to show  
>> up as common  items on the surplus market by the early 1970's. In  
>> the late 1980s  the government was worried enough about them to  
>> buy a ton of spare  tubes to keep them going.
>>
>> One technically correct answer to your question is the Harris  
>> RF-590.  It was designed from the ground up as a replacement for  
>> the R390. The similarity of the numbers between the two radios is  
>> deliberate. They  were sold into a number of systems where they  
>> directly replaced the  R390's both in service and agency service.
>>
>> Another fundamentally correct answer to the question is the  
>> R1051.  This is a Navy only radio rather than a multi service /  
>> multi agency  radio. It is essentially a return to the previous  
>> pattern of radios  designed for the specific needs of a single  
>> service. The 1051's  definitely dropped into racks that R390's  
>> came out of and did so  starting in the 1960's while the bulk of  
>> the R390's were being built.  The R1051 was designed specifically   
>> to overcome limitations of the  R390 in Navy usage. They are also  
>> still in service in the Navy.
>>
>> In another respect just about any HF radio that was made in  
>> quantity  by Collins, Racal, Watkins Johnson or Harris did replace  
>> the R390 in  some application with either the services or  
>> agencies. Certainly the  Racal 6790GM and the Harris RF550 are in  
>> this category.
>>
>> The final way to look at it is that there really was no  
>> replacement  for the R390. Communications requirements have  
>> changed over the  years. The biggest role of the R390 was in  
>> backbone communications  for the DOD. The full deployment of  
>> satellite based communications in  the 1970's took HF out of the  
>> backbone role. We can debate the  intelligence of this move, but  
>> it is what was done. In this sense the  replacement for the R390  
>> is a radio that doesn't even cover HF at all.
>>
>> Fortunately this is a hobby and not a court of law. We each get  
>> to  decide what to do with our own collections. Just about any set  
>> of  radios can be described as forming a reasonable "evolution" of  
>> radio  systems. As you may have guessed by now I have a few of  
>> radios that  came after the R390 in my collection. I make no claim  
>> that I have an  exhaustive set, or even a representative set.
>>
>> No matter which way you go there is some cost involved. None of  
>> these radios are 100% reliable. Parts for all of them are hard to  
>> come by. Simply buying one of each is not a reasonable way to have  
>> a working  set of radios. Either you will spend a lot of time and  
>> money shipping  radios out for repair or you will maintain a stock  
>> of parts yourself.  As the radios get newer they get more  
>> expensive. A rack full of  RF590A's will set you back just a little.
>>
>> Best advice would be to pick *one* of the successor radios and  
>> focus  on it. Get a reasonable setup including spares and manuals.  
>> Once you  are comfortable with the stability of that part of the  
>> collection  move on to the next radio. Most of us are limited in  
>> the cash we can  spend on this hobby. If you have a *lot* of money  
>> to put into this  then we need to talk .... Assuming you have a  
>> rational budget the   best guess is that you are talking at least  
>> a couple of years per  radio type.
>>
>>     Take Care!
>>
>>         Bob Camp
>>         KB8TQ
>>
>>
>>
>> On May 15, 2005, at 1:29 AM, Orrin Bentz wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Good evening gentlemen.
>>>
>>> Can anyone tell me what kind of receivers were in use by the
>>> military & civilian agencies after the R390's were phased out.
>>>
>>> In other words which radios are we going to collect and refurbish
>>> next?
>>>
>>> This question may be answered  in the archives but I couldn't find
>>> it.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Orrin Bentz
>>>
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>>
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