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

[Michael Murphy]

Dave,

Nice to see the RBC too. That is a real boat anchor. There were some folks
talking about radios with front end selectivity - the RBC is right up there
with the other radios mentioned with fantastic shielding and two RF stages.
The Navy needed a radio for the fleet that could not be RDF tracked by it's
receivers local oscillators or a regenerative stages (or any other
oscillators) by an enemy warship. This was a common way to find enemy ships
during and after WW1. Lord Mountbatten was a radio officer in the 1930's
doing RDF work in this way.

Mike Murphy WB2UID


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Merrill" <r390a at rcn.com>
To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 5:56 PM
Subject: [R-390] Ahoy! R-390A sighting aboard USS Hornet


> 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
> _____________________________________________________________
> R-390 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/r-390
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/faq.htm
> Post: mailto:R-390 at mailman.qth.net
> Unsubscribe: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/options/r-390