[R-390] Ahoy! R-390A sighting aboard USS Hornet

[Dave Merrill]

Earlier this year we were visiting in the San Francisco and we
took a tour of the USS Hornet http://www.uss-hornet.org moored at
Alameda Point.  Well worth your time if you are in the area.

After being a little disappointed to find that the radio room was 
not yet open to the public, I was surprised to find two R-390A 
receivers adjacent to the weather compartment.  The pictures I
took are here: http://img50.exs.cx/gal.php?g=img26703gj.jpg&cols=3
(select an image by clicking it - once it displays, click it again
for a larger version).

They both seem to be EAC but I don't know which contract.  Meters
missing, perhaps removed when the ship was decommissioned?  Both
have the front panel diode load modification so they're likely Navy.
Label added by the museum calls them 'R-390'.  Dual cabinet CY-2416/U
was a new one to me, never saw one before.  Since the ship has gone
through many refittings, perhaps the case was a leftover from earlier
equipment?

Other gear spotted:

3 x Frequency Shift Converter CV-89A 
2 x Frequency Shift Converter CV-172A/U

Modulator MD-168/UX

Kleinschmidt (?) Teletype

RBC Receiver

All of this gear is in somewhat rough shape - the compartment where 
they are housed is open on one side and the sea air is taking its
toll.  This is not a knock on the fine folks running the museum.
They have an enormous task and not many hands to do the work.

The Hornet had been sold for scrap (primarily for the copper),
but the contractor returned it to the government because they
could not dismantle it economically and comply with California's
environmental requirements so it wound up as a museum.

There's been a lot of discussion on the list of some of the more
glamorous roles for the R-390 - intercept, tactical communications
and so on - but they also served in more mundane tasks like weather
FAX reception.

73,
/dave
N9ZC