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

Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com
Mon May 16 22:32:52 EDT 2005


Fellows,

There are two kinds of radio receiver operation out there.

Type one is RTTY link fixed frequency. Fixed channel PRC series of 
transceivers work for this kind of operation. Most of the receivers I have seen in the 
last 20 years fall into this mode of operation. It is in the detent and set to 
this frequency or you move it one detent stop and you are on the adjacent 
channel frequency. Nothing between the two choices.

Type two is more like Amateur operation and R390, any frequency between and 
across 31.5Mhz with a resolution of as fine as you are willing to work the knob 
to.

The intelligence agency's doing intercept work still have a use for this type 
of a receiver. You can drag in any signal if you work it long enough. You 
could put the original on tape real time and play it over and over until you get 
it if you wanted it. IE the commander said get it. These are the receivers we 
are going to want when they get surplused out. Someday they will be. R390's 
went out the door because the military was lobbied and congress was lobbied to 
have military contractors build new stuff and tax payers pay the bill. If the 
military needed more good receivers, they could have ask the low bidder to 
build another batch of R390/A. 

The 45 was a good item since 1911. Someone wanted to sell something new and 
could not make money low bidding a new batch of 45 iron. So the lobby was in 
for the 9MM. The results is bla, bla, bla and BS.

Receivers changed over the years. Fixed frequency channel receivers and 
transmitters got cheep and easy to manufacture. Thank you CB, business band, and 
digital tuning. This type of receiver has been applied to every nitch it would 
fit into.

The small market, (Amateur, Intelligence, Science) for full tuning receivers 
has been put on the back burner. The "glut" of R390/A surplus has filled the 
market for most Amateur and science needs. So no one is building a military 
receiver to match the range of the R390's. 

Long haul HF military has gone back to wire lines and satellite links. This 
has moved out of the HF range. A watt of hand held HF in a tactical battle 
field will get you killed. You put up a signal that can be DF'ed from 30 miles and 
you are going to catch so much incoming artillery you own unit will be 
jamming that radio where the sun never shines. So tactical battle field has also 
move into VHF, UHF and fixed digital channel tuning. Just because 1 watt will not 
go 30 miles.

While the Amateur community is facing more use on our frequency spectrum, 
other parts of the HF bands are getting much less use today. I can see amateur 
radio haveing any thing and every thing under 50Mhz. Of course we will have to 
live with BPL the application that finally drove every one else to spread 
spectrum and over 50MHz.

I was reading my copy of World Radio yesterday. The question to Krusty Kurt 
was "how do we get the AM off the Amateur  Bands?" Just as I retire and want to 
get my DX100 and R90/A back on 7Mhz. CW and AM are the two low cost ways to 
still do it your self into Amateur radio. Why do we want to get Am off the 
bands? SSB has been there for 50 years plus and the comment is still SSB sounds 
best in the OFF mode. All of us R390 owners are still looking for a circuit that 
will let SSB come out of a set of phones with a sound that does not leave us 
hearing impaired.

Oh, you meant what receivers were manufactured after the R390/A
Sorry, I missed the intent of the question.

Roger KC6TRU


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